KESSEN 3 FAQ/WALKTHROUGH (v0.95, 1-09-05) by Edward Chang (chang dot 459 at osu dot edu) Revision History v0.95 (1-09-05) Several revisions and additions to the gameplay/mechanics section, as well as new walkthroughs for most of the battles left out of the previous version. Only one battle in Chapter Nine and the whole of Chapter Thirteen left to go. v0.9 (1-05-05) Everything up through Chapter Twelve complete - first circuit through the game done! The second circuit will fill in the remaining battles and the 'extra' Chapter Thirteen. Also revised some of the Tips/FAQs. v0.8 (1-02-05) Up through Chapter Seven. Took some notes on Chapter Eight, but a better description will come next version. v0.7 (12-31-04) Walkthrough through Chapter Five mostly completed. A few more FAQs answered. v0.55 (12-30-04) Chapter Two completed. v0.5 (12-29-04) First version. Game description/controls and walkthrough through Chapter One completed. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Controls 3. Gameplay Basics -Menus -Conference -War Council -Battle -After Battle -General/Unit Information 4. Walkthrough 5. Tips/Frequently Asked Questions 6. Credits 1. INTRODUCTION This is an FAQ and Walkthrough for Koei's latest action strategy game, Kessen 3. Unlike the previous games in the Kessen series, Kessen 3 interprets the battles of the Sengoku (Warring States) period in Japan with real-time strategic battles. It's slightly more similar to Koei's Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors games now in that you control units directly in real-time now, but it retains the need for strategic planning and cunning like its predecessors. In Kessen 3, you take the role of Oda Nobunaga as he fights to unite all of Japan. You'll start from the battles of his youth, such as the Battle of Okehazama where he first made his name, to the battles of his later years and even a few battles which he did not live to see historically. This FAQ makes use of SJIS encoding in order to display Japanese characters. I included this feature so that if you do not know Japanese, you can easily match up the characters on your TV screen to the characters in this guide. You will need to have support for viewing Japanese characters on your computer, however. Certain versions of Windows should have it built in; otherwise, you'll either need to get a program like NJStar Communicator, or you'll need to get Japanese character support for Internet Explorer and open this file in IE instead of Notepad/Wordpad. The only website authorized to post this FAQ is www.gamefaqs.com. If you see this document elsewhere, not only are they posting without my permission, but they likely do not have the most current version of this FAQ. Emails to me asking questions already answered in the FAQ, even if the answers are not in the version you are reading, will be deleted without response. 2. CONTROLS There are three sets of controls depending on which phase of the game you are currently in. DURING BATTLES Directional Pad or Left Stick - Movement Right Stick - Camera Movement (press to change camera view) Square - Normal Attack Triangle - Crush Attack and Troop Specials Circle - General Specials X - Retreat Start - Battle Map Select - Game Menu R1 - Combo R2 - Gather Units L1 - Guard/Assemble Formation/Reset Camera L2 - Change Unit DURING SOLO BATTLE Directonal Pad or Left Stick - Movement Right Stick - Camera Movement (press to display enemy life) Square - Normal Attack Triangle - Special Attack Circle - Kessen Attack X - Jump Start - Not Used Select - Game Menu R1 - Not Used R2 - Not Used L1 - Guard/Shift Movement L2 - Not Used ON THE BATTLE MAP/MENUS Directional Pad or Left Stick - Select Unit Right Stick - Press to display names Square - Unit Information Triangle - Zoom In/Out Circle - Confirm/Unit Orders X - Cancel R1 - Enemy Units Menu R2 - Message History L1 - Ally Units Menu L2 - Victory Conditions 3. GAMEPLAY BASICS ----- MENUS ----- When you start the game you'll see the following options: 続きから - Continue はじめから - New Game 合戦絵巻 - Battle History 環境設定 - Settings インストール - Install (if you have the PlayStation BB Unit) GAME PREVIEWS - See upcoming Koei game previews Battle History is sort of like the 'vault' of this game; you can review generals, items, battles, and music that you've already encountered in the game. In Settings, you'll see the following options: 字幕 - Subtitles (On/Off) 振動機能 - Vibration (On/Off) 部隊情報 - Unit Info Displayed (during Battles; On/Off) 部隊名 - Unit Names Displayed (during Battles; On/Off) レーダー - Radar Displayed (during battles; On/Off) サウンド - Adjust volume, select Dolby/Stereo/Mono 画面調整 - Adjust Display 初期設定に戻す - Return to Defaults 設定完了 - Finish Setting During most of the game you can press the Select button to bring up the game menu. During this menu you'll have the following options: セーブ - Save Game ロード - Load Game 環境設定 - Settings 「戦国無双」データ - Load Sengoku Musou or Sengoku Musou Moushouden data; loading the former adds Maeda Keiji to your army, while loading the latter adds Inahime to your army. タイトル画面に戻る - Return to Title Screen When you start a new game, you'll automatically be set to beginner difficulty (初級). After clearing the game once, via the New Game+-like feature, you can access the higher difficulties. The major difference is that on middle difficulty and above, there is an extra chapter at the end of the game. The game's flow is divided into three major parts: 評定 - Conference 軍議 - War Council 合戦 - Battle ---------- CONFERENCE ---------- During Conference, you'll see a map of the area with a list of battles you can select (represented by crossed swords), your home base (a castle), and a merchant (gold coins). This map changes as you progress through the chapters. A pair of small crossed swords represents minor battles that do not advance the story. These are the only kinds of battles that Oda Nobunaga himself does not have to participate in. A slightly larger pair of crossed swords represents normal battles that advance the stories slightly. In many chapters, you can only select some of these (after finishing some of these battles the rest disappear). Finally, a large pair of flaming swords represents major battles that progress the story a lot and often end the chapter after completion. After selecting the merchant, you will have a chance to buy or sell equipment, items, and units. You can equip these things by selecting your home base and selecting 装備変更. Press triangle to switch between screens showing what your general currently has equipped and what the changes to his or her stats would be if you equipped the new item. The various types of equipment are: 武器 - Weapon 鎧 - Armor 兜 - Helmet 装飾 - Accessory 名馬 - Horse 兵法書 - Skill Book 兵種 - Troop Type Each general has the following statistics: 武力 - Prowess 知力 - Intelligence 体力 - Vitality 攻撃 - Attack 防御 - Defense 移動 - Speed Weapons raise Prowess, Armor raises Vitality, and Helmets raise Intelligence. Accessories can raise a variety of stats or have other effects. Horses usually have special effects as well. Skill Books are used to teach General Skills, and the Troop Type is the type of unit that general will command in battle. Attack, Defense, and Speed are fairly self-explanatory and are derived from the troop type equipped, the equipment that general equips, and the general's personal statistics. Prowess affects Attack as well as attack power during Solo Battle. Intelligence affects the duration and power of General Skills and the duration of Solo Battle. Finally, Vitality affects Defense and the maximum amount of life in Solo Battle. While selecting your home base you can also check the general information of your generals or your possessions (情報) and the history of the battles you have fought so far (戦国史). ----------- WAR COUNCIL ----------- After selecting a battle, you may see a cutscene describing what you have to do in the battle (the minor battles generally don't have these), and then you'll be taken to the actual War Council planning session. Here you'll see a map of the battlefield along with your units and enemy units your scouts have spotted. (In most cases you will not be able to see all of the enemy units that are actually present until you encounter them during the actual battle). The War Council menu has the following options: 自動配置 - Automatic Deployment 布陣変更 - Change Formation 部隊命令 - Unit Orders 装備変更 - Change Equipment 勝利条件 - Victory Conditions 合戦開始 - Begin Battle Automatic Deployment will set your units on the map based solely on level and health. I don't recommend that you ever use this feature. Victory Conditions will allow you to check on both the conditions for winning the battle and the conditions under which you automatically lose. It usually also shows some tips that can help you win or hints for getting certain items. Change Equipment allows you to change your generals' equipment in exactly the same way as during Conference. Change Formation will allow you to move the cursor around the map so you can check the entire battlefield. Any of your units that are gray on the map are predetermined and must remain at that position. Blue units are reinforcements for your side that show up mid-battle. You can change which units show up as reinforcements most of the time, but you cannot remove them from the map, and they count towards your total deployable units. Enemy units that your scouts have spotted, of course, are red. To set a unit, select a white square. A white square with a square in it is a squad leader square; a white square with a cross in it is a squad support square. A leader must be set before a support unit can be put in. Once you've selected a square, you'll see a list of your generals arranged by level. In the lower right you'll see the general's name, their health, the unit they have equipped, and the number of troops they have. Health is represented by a colored arrow. A blue arrow pointing up represents the maximum possible level of health. Then a green arrow pointing up and right, a yellow arrow pointing straight right, and an orange arrow pointing down and right represent decreasing levels of health. A purple arrow pointing straight down represents a wounded general. Health affects the overall performance of that general and their unit during battle. The healthier the unit, the better, in nearly all aspects. Health decreases as generals take part in battle and increases again if generals are not deployed during battle. Thus you'll usually want to rotate between generals so that no one general gets too tired. (Nobunaga, who has to be deployed at almost all of the battles, handily comes equipped with a starting accessory that automatically sets his health to maximum. Of course, you can equip that accessory on anybody else should you need to.) If a general is defeated in battle he will automatically change status to wounded and will need several battles to recover. After setting all of your units (the maximum number of units deployable varies on the battle), you will generally want to assign orders. Any squad generally moves as one, so you only have to assign orders to the squad leader. You automatically start out battles controlling Nobunaga (or whoever you placed first on the map if you are playing a minor battle). Selecting Unit Orders will give you several options: 目標変更 - Change Objective 方針指示 - Policy 全軍命令 - Army Order Selecting Change Objective will prompt you to move the cursor. By selecting any location on the map, that unit will then follow the path outlined and proceed to that location automatically. If you select an enemy unit or structure, the unit will automatically attack the designated objective. Note that if you are controlling a unit currently moving under Change Objective and you press the directional pad or left stick, it will instantly cancel any order that unit has. Thus this is mostly used for the CPU-controlled units. Policy changes the general strategy of that unit. The first choice leaves it up to the discretion of the general, the second choice shifts the emphasis to offense, the third to defense, and the fourth instructs the general not to use General Skills (conserving them). Finally, Army Order allows you to set an objective (just as in Change Objective) an have ALL of your units follow it. The second option under Army Order will cancel that objective. Once you've checked your victory conditions, set your units, and assigned orders to the units you aren't controlling, it's time to start the battle. ------ BATTLE ------ Here is where all of the action takes place. There are several parts of the display you'll need to pay attention to. In the extreme upper left there will be the name of the general whose unit you are currently controlling. Directly under his name will be the number of troops he has, represented both numerically and as a blue bar. The number of troops is basically the health of the unit; if that is reduced to 0, that general will withdraw from battle and will become wounded, and the unit will be gone from the map. To the left of the troop indicator is the General Skills Gauge. The max value of this Gauge is 4; using a General Skill consumes this gauge, and it refills automatically over time. The starting condition of this gauge is related to your general's health; a perfectly healthy general will start the battle with a full gauge, whereas a very tired one will start with nothing. To the right is a group of nine dots and a colored background. This represents the state of your unit's formation. A perfectly ordered unit will have a perfect array of 3x3 dots and a blue background. As you move or are attacked, your formation will become increasingly disarrayed. This will be represented both by the shifting of the dots and the progression of the background of the array from blue through green, yellow, and finally red. The more ordered your formation is, the better your defense, the longer beneficial General Skills last, and the shorter harmful General Skills last. Thus, it is crucial to maintain as good a formation as possible all of the time. To reorder your formation, tap and hold the L1 button (which incidentally also allows your unit to guard attacks). In the upper right of the screen you may see likewise the name, number of troops, General Skills gauge, and formation display of an enemy unit you are currently attacking. If your unit is not engaged in battle, this display does not show up. Below your unit's information is general information on the rest of the units in your army. You'll see a quick display with name, an icon representing unit type, General Skills gauge, and the blue troop number gauge for all of the units in your army. Thus you can keep an eye on which of your units might be in trouble. In the upper right you'll see a map of the area, with blue dots representing your units and red dots enemy units; the unit you are currently controlling will be represented with an arrow. On the screen itself you'll see your units with the name of the general and again the blue bar representing the troop number of your unit. Enemy troop number gauges are displayed in red on the main screen. If a unit has a General Skill active on it, below the blue gauge will be a green gauge representing the duration of that General Skill. As units take damage you'll also see this represented on the screen; red numbers are damage that the enemy takes, while white numbers are damage suffered by you or your allies. At the very bottom of the screen you'll see messages pop up from time to time and in the lower right you'll see the time remaining for the stage. (Generally, if time runs out, you lose. Also, the more time you have remaining, the better your battle rating will be - more on that later). While moving around you may see yellow glowing object. These are either items that you will gain after the battle, or sometimes they trigger special events (such as a villager showing you a hidden pathway, or a lone warrior wanting to join you after the battle ends). There will also be barrels of rice glowing green. These will restore troops to whichever unit picks them up. Now that we've covered the display, on to a description of the various actions you'll do on during battle. UNIT ORDERS By pressing the Start button at any time, you can bring up the same map that you saw during the War Council. Here you can assign or change orders anew, though you will not be able to place units or change equipment. This is useful for constantly keeping track of your other units; for instance, if you are controlling Oda Nobunaga's unit and switch to Kichou's unit, you can then immediately assign orders to Nobunaga's unit with little lapse in attention. You can also reassign squads by selecting (軍団再編). You can split a squad support unit off to make its own squad, or join squads together. Each squad has a maximum of three units. GAME MENU By pressing Select you can save, load, and perform other game functions as described above. MOVEMENT Movement is done simply by pressing the left stick or the directional pad. Your unit will begin to move en masse in the direction you're pointing, slowly picking up speed. Naturally, you can move faster down slopes, while going up slopes or through water will make you move slower. RETREAT Retreat in Kessen 3 is basically a specialized form of movement, performed by holding X while moving. Retreat will allow you to gather a disarrayed unit and regroup more quickly. In exchange, you will lose defense. A timer under your troop gauge will slowly build the longer you have retreat active, representing how long after you stop retreating your defense will remain lowered. Still, retreating can be useful for quickly getting out of a hectic situation. CHARGE If your unit is moving at a relatively fast speed, you can inflict damage to an enemy unit just by running over it. The faster your unit is moving, the more damage you will do. If two units are moving towards each other, generally the faster unit will win out. NORMAL ATTACKS A normal attack is done by pressing square. You can press square up to four times in a row for a combination attack. In general normal attacks recover quickly and don't leave your unit open to attack for long. The fourth attack in a string of four will knock enemy units back. Note that even ranged units (bows, guns and the like) will use melee attacks for normal attacks, so normal attacks are always relatively short-ranged and require you to be next to the enemy. GUARD/REFORMING UNIT Pressing L1 will realign your formation as well as put your unit in guarding stance. Keep in mind, however, that not all attacks can be guarded equally well. Normal attacks can always be guarded. Charges, Crush Attacks, and Troop Specials may or may not be able to be guarded; a comparison of your unit's defense and the opposing unit's offense will determine whether or not your guard is successful. (However, you can always guard an ally's attack, no matter what the sort.) Finally, General Skills cannot be guarded. CHANGING UNITS When you press L2 the game will pause briefly and a cursor will appear over your ally units in the upper left. Simply press up/down, select the unit you want to change to, and press O to change to that unit, or press X to cancel. After changing units, it would be wise to hit Start and assign orders to the unit you just left, unless you want them to stand there and do nothing. ASSEMBLING SQUAD By pressing and holding R2, you will call the other units in your squad to your current location. CRUSH ATTACKS Crush attacks are performed by pressing triangle after using normal attacks in a string. They are similar to the Charge Attacks of the Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors series, in that you perform them such as ST, SST, or SSST, they are more powerful, but they leave your unit more open to attack. The type of crush attack performed differs based on unit type. TROOP SPECIAL SKILLS Pressing and holding triangle on its own (without pressing square before hand) allows you to charge up that unit's troop special skill. While charging, a yellow arrow will appear over your unit showing which way your unit is facing. Once the charge is completed, the arrow will become solid and a chiming sound will be made. Afterwards all you have to do is release triangle for your unit to perform the Troop Special. The specials are generally very damaging and may have special effects; for instance, mounted spear units perform a charging attack, while bow units will fire their arrows. The downside is that if your unit is attacked while charging, not only will your special be interrupted, but you will take double damage and your unit will be momentarily confused. Of course, you can do the same to the enemy, so watch for them trying to charge their skills and attack accordingly. GENERAL SPECIAL SKILLS Pressing circle will bring up a circular on-screen menu that shows what skills your general has learned. There are five types of skills and pressing up and down will change between the types. After selecting the skill, you will be prompted to select the unit to use that skill on (it must be in range). Using General Skills consumes points in the General Skills gauge. Note that only one General Skill may be active on a unit at any given time. Thus, if one of your units is suffering a negative status effect from an enemy's General Skill, one tactic is to immediately cast a General Skill of your own on that unit to override it. The types of skills and the amount of gauge consumed are as follows: 支援系 - Support Type 　　激励 - Gekirei: Raises unit attack. (1) 　　堅固 - Kengo: Raises unit defense. (1) 　　疾風 - Shippuu: Raises unit speed. (1) 　　結界 - Kekkai: Provides resistance against enemy General Skills. (1) 　　回復 - Kaifuku: Slowly heals unit over time. (2) 　　大激励 - Daigekirei: Raises attack of all units in range. (2) 　　大回復 - Daikaifuku: Heals all units in range over time. (3) 計画系 - Tactics Type 　　罵倒 - Batou: Lowers unit attack. (1) 　　大喝 - Daikatsu: Lowers unit defense. (1) 　　拘束 - Kousoku: Lowers unit speed. (1) 　　沈黙 - Chinmoku: Prevents General Skill usage. (1) 　　疑心 - Gishin: Causes defection in unit (as unit is damaged, attacking unit gains troops from that unit). (2) 　　大沈黙 - Daichinmoku: Silences all units in range. (2) 　　大疑心 - Daigishin: Causes defection on all units in range. (3) 攻撃系 - Attack Type 　　毒撃 - Dokugeki: Poison attack on all units in range. (2) 　　氷撃 - Hyougeki: Ice attack on all units in range. (2) 　　雷撃 - Raigeki: Lightning attack on all units in range. (2) 　　火遁 - Katon: Creates surrounding fire shield and raises speed. (3) 　　水遁 - Suiton: Creates forward water shield. (2) 　　土遁 - Doton: Creates forward earth shield and raises speed. (3) 　　風遁 - Fuuton: Creates surrounding wind shield. (2) 忍術系 - Ninja Magic Type 　　竜神 - Ryuujin: Causes damage to all units in range. (3) 　　竜巻 - Tatsumaki: Causes damage and lowers attack of all units in range. (4) 　　落雷 - Rakurei: Causes damage and lowers defense of all units in range. (4) 　　紅蓮 - Guren: Causes damage and lowers speed of all units in range. (4) 　　隕石 - Inseki: Causes damage and seals skills of all units in range. (4) 　　変化 - Henka: Causes damage and paralyzes unit for a time. (4) 　　天運 - Ten'un: Random effect. (3) 武将系 　　単騎駆け - Tankikake: Begins Solo Battle. (1) CRITICAL ATTACKS As mentioned earlier, attacking a unit while that unit is trying to charge its troop special skill will interrupt the attack and cause double damage. This is not the only way to cause so-called Critical Attacks. Two other ways are attacking a unit from behind and hitting a unit with your own troop special skill from an extremely close distance. These Critical Attacks are also important for Combos. COMBOS Combos are performed by pressing R1 in specific circumstances. There are actually two types of combos: Combination Attacks and Supporting Fire. Combination Attacks: If you succeed in inflicting a Critical Attack on an enemy unit and another ally unit is nearby (usually another unit in your own squad), a blue R1 mark will pop up briefly over that unit's name in the upper left. Pressing R1 will then trigger the Combo. The unit will perform their particular Troop Special Skill, but you will get a damage bonus based on a variety of factors. Pressing R1 will cause a list of these factors (ranging from things like "Same Troop Type", "Same Skill", "Good Combination", "Good Health" and so on) to appear on the right side of the screen with the damage multiplier in the lower right. Damage multipliers can climb extremely high, so shoot for Combination Attacks as much as possible. Supporting Fire: If you are attacking a unit and an ally unit with a ranged Troop Special Skill is in range, a yellow R1 will appear over that unit's name. Pressing R1 will cause the ally unit to fire. There is no damage bonus for this type of combo, but it is noticeably much easier to do as no special conditions need to be fulfilled. In fact, an easy way to defeat a unit is to continually block with a high defense squad while you direct an ally unit to continually fire at the enemy unit. The enemy unit will try to attack your high defense unit uselessly while your ally chips away at them. In either kind of combo remember to block by holding L1 so that your own unit does not get hit. Getting hit by an ally Troop Special Skill does not cause damage, but it will disarray your unit and open it up for attack. Blocking allows ally Troop Special Skills to pass through your unit harmlessly. SOLO BATTLE By selecting Tankikake from the General Skills menu, your general will break off from his unit and attack an enemy unit solo. This has a number of advantages as well as a few risks, which will be described below. First, however, once Tankikake is triggered, the display will switch to the Solo Battle screen. In the upper right will be the general's name. Below it will be that general's life gauge (determined by that general's Vitality). If the life gauge reaches zero, Tankikake ends automatically; however the unit will remain intact. To the right of the general's name is a gauge of four dots representing the Kessen Attack gauge. This starts with either one or two dots filled depending on the type of general. At the top center of the map is a timer. If the timer runs out, Tankikake ends. The general's Intelligence determines how long the timer starts at. Killing certain numbers of enemy troops will increase the timer. Directly below that is the Valor Gauge. This gauge fills up as you kill enemies. The higher the gauge is, the greater effect items picked up during Tankikake have once Tankikake ends. Below the life bar is a display showing combo count and number of defeated troops, along with the number of troops needed to achieve the next level of the Valor Gauge or to add to the timer. In the lower left is an indicator of how many items you have already picked up. The controls for Solo Battle are similar to normal battles but also bear some similarity to the Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors series. Movement is done normally, as is guarding. Moving while guarding causes "Shift Movement" familiar from the Warriors games, that is, your general will move while facing in the same direction, allowing strafing and such. The Square button is for normal attacks, up to a chain of four. Triangle allows special attacks much like the Charge attacks of the Warriors series, and combinations can be done such as ST, SST, and SSST. The Circle button consumes a Kessen Attack point to perform the Keseen Attack, a very powerful attack that attacks a large area of enemies. You are invincible while performing the Kessen Attack. Also, the timer does not run during a Kessen Attack, which can be handy. Defeating enemies with the flags on their backs can cause them to drop items. There are several types of items: Mask - Once Tankikake ends, the enemy unit will be confused. The more masks that are picked up, the longer that unit is confused. Rice - Once Tankikake ends, the ally unit will be healed. The more picked up, the larger the effect. Sword - The general gains more experience. Money Box - The army gains more money. Rice Ball - The general regains some life. Glowing Orb - The general gains a Kessen Attack point. Again, the better you perform during Tankikake, the greater overall effect any items you pick up will have. After defeating 100 enemies and filling the Valor Gauge to full, the enemy general of that unit will appear. Of course, he's much harder to defeat then the generic troops of that unit. However, if you defeat him, your general will actually gain health back (health, not life - if the general started the battle with a yellow sideways arrow, he'll now be a green upper-right arrow) and also has a chance of gaining stats as well. The chances of gaining stats are dependent on how strong the enemy general is. On the other hand if your general is defeated during Tankikake, he'll actually lose health, and any items you've picked up will be all for nought. Defeating the enemy commander does not eliminate his unit, although their health will drop. Note that this is the only way to recruit some generals. So once again, to summarize the benefits and risks of Solo Battling: Benefits: Can gain back troops for the unit. Can gain back health for the general. Can cause damage and/or confuse the enemy unit without risking one's own unit. Can raise general's stats. Risks: Consumes one General Skill point. Can lose health if your general loses. ------------ AFTER BATTLE ------------ After winning a battle, you'll see the results of your hard work. First you'll see a list of noteworthy generals defeated, as well as the total number of enemy units defeated. Next you'll see your overall ranking. Your ranking is determined by four factors: 撃破兵士数 - Number of enemy troops defeated. 負傷兵士数 - Number of ally casualties. 経過時間 - Elapsed time. 兵種特技 - Troop special skill usage. Each factor has a maximum of 100 points. The more enemy troops defeated, the higher your score, whereas ally casualties and elapsed time require lower numbers for higher scores. Troop special skills is a little more complex. You get points for hitting enemies with your troop special skills, but you lose points for accidentally hitting your allies with them. Thus to get a high score in this category you need to hit an enemy with troop special skills as many times as possible without hitting your own allies (again, why blocking is so important!) At the bottom you'll see a combined score, and you'll also be assigned a rank. There are four possible ranks (可, 良, 優, 極 in increasing order of rank) with threshholds at 200, 250, and 300 points. The better you do, the more gold you get at the end of the battle. Also, if you get the second-highest rank, you will get a special item, and if you get the highest rank, you will get that special item as well as another special item. (Thus, every battle has the possibility of earning two special items.) If you failed to achieve the highest rank during the battle, you can hit Triangle to try again. On the next screen you can see the items you've picked up. Scroll up and down to peruse them. On the screen afterwards you'll see a list of your generals. There are three special achievements a general can have on this page, represented by a red stamp in their box: 大将 - Defeating the commander (some battles have two commanders). 一首 - Being the first to defeat an enemy unit. 一槍 - Being the first to attack an enemy. Your generals will gain experience on this screen; their performance in battle of course determines how much experience they get. As your generals gain experience they will go up in levels, thus raising their stats somewhat. Here you'll also receive a report of if your generals gained rank (gaining rank allows them to have a higher maximum number of troops) or learned General Skills. Finally you'll be prompted to save, and then you'll be returned to the Conference session (sometimes seeing a cutscene first). ------------------------ GENERAL/UNIT INFORMATION ------------------------ There are several ways to see your generals and their information. One way is by selecting your castle during Conference. This will show a picture of your general and his equipment; pressing triangle will show his stats. These have already been discussed above. More importantly, pressing square will show a more detailed look at that general, which we will go into now. STATS The first screen will show on the left side the general's name and level, and then the experience that general has as well as how much experience is needed to reach the next level. On the next line is the general's rank. A general may rise in rank if they have a lot of achivements in battle and generally perform in an outstanding fashion. Gaining rank increases the maximum number of troops in that general's unit. In increasing order, the ranks are: 小頭 0 組頭 20 物頭 25 足軽大将 35 侍大将 40 武者大将 45 中老 55 家老 60 宿老 65 The numbers after each rank indicates the number of merit points needed in one battle to ascend to that rank. Merit points are a hidden factor awarded as follows: Defeating an enemy commander (大将首) - 20 Being the first to defeat an enemy (一番首) - 10 Being the first to attack an enemy (一番槍) - 5 Defeating a named general - 5 Defeating a generic unit - 1 Since merit points do not carry over from battle to battle, the surest way to increase rank is to try and make sure one general gets all of the above merits at once. On the next line will be that general's type and their health. The type of general determines which stats are easier to gain during level up as well as which types of General Skills are easier to learn. 万能 - All-around; all three stats; Support, Attack skills 猛将 - Warrior; Prowess, Vitality; no skills 知将 - Strategist; Prowess, Intelligence; Tactics, Attack skills 僧侶 - Priest; Intelligence, Vitality; Support, Tactics skills 忍者 - Ninja; all three stats; Ninja skills 英雄 - Hero; all three stats; all skills Types can be changed by equipping certain accessories. Warrior types, in exchange for not learning any skills that easily, start Tankikake (Solo Battle) with two points in the Kessen Attack gauge instead of one. "Hero" is a special type that is only accessible by equipping a rare accessory (earned in Chapter 6, during the Decisive Battle of Mikawa). The general's health is represented by the color as well as a rank (絶好調, 好調, 普通, 不調, 負傷 in decreasing order of health). Below that are the general's personal stats (Prowess, Intelligence, and Vitality). On the right side of the screen at the top is that general's affinity for the nine different troop types. Each affinity is given as a number from one to ten: 壱 弐 参 四 伍 六 七 八 九 拾 If you don't recognize some of these number kanji, that is because the game uses the "Classical" older kanji for the numbers instead of the modern, more familiar ones. In any case, the actual troop type that general has equipped will be highlighted in blue. The higher the affinity a general has for a troop type, the greater the bonuses to attack and defense the general gets when equipping that troop type. Below the affinities list is the name of the unit the general actually has equipped as well as the maximum number of troops in that unit. Below that is the current strategy set to that unit. Finally at the bottom is a list of the attack, defense, and speed of the general and his unit. SKILLS Pressing square again brings you to the second page where you can see a list of the General Skills that general has learned. Learning To learn a General Skill, you must equip that general with a Skill Book. The general will then be able to use that Skill in battle; these skills are listed as 未習 on the skill list. Using skills while a Skill Book for that skill is equipped gives experience towards that skill. Also, at the end of the battle some experience is given to any skills for which Skill Books are equipped. Once enough skill experience is gained, the skill will reach Lv1. At this point the general can use the skill even without the corresponding Skill Book equipped. However, they will not gain experience towards that skill anymore unless they keep the Book equipped. The amount of experience to get to the next level increases every level. Also, the amount of experience gained is influenced by the general type as described above. Some more advanced Skill Books teach two or three different skills at once. TROOP TYPES There are nine different types of troops in the game. Among the troop types, there are many different units. For instance, the Lower Class Mounted Spearmen and Middle Class Mounted Spearmen are both of the Mounted Spearmen type, but the latter has higher stats and a more powerful Troop Special Skill. The 9 basic types are as follows: Mounted Spear (female are Mounted Naginata) - These troops have fast movement and a fast-charging Troop Special Skill. However, they have comparatively low defense. Their Troop Special Skill is Charge, which causes the entire unit to move forward causing damage to enemies in their path. More advanced units Charge for longer, and the color changes to indicate that they're more powerful. Mounted Bow - These troops are fast and have great range with their bows. Like other mounted units, however, they have low defense. Their Troop Special Skill is Concentrated Fire, which is very useful for the Supporting Fire type of combo. As the units get more advanced, they can begin firing three waves of arrows, and then five. Mounted Gun - These troops are more powerful than mounted bow, but their Troop Special Skill charges more slowly, and they cannot arc their shots. Their Troop Special Skill is Concentrated Gunfire. Like the bow units, they eventually will fire in three waves and then five. Katana Footsoldier - These troops are slower than the mounted troops but have higher defense. Their Troop Special Skill is the Kuruma-gakari ('Wheel Formation'), which causes the entire unit to spin in place causing damage to all nearby enemy units. More advanced units spin for longer, and the color changes to indicate increased damage. Spear Footsoldier - These troops have the highest defense out of any unit. Their Troop Special Skill is Spear Screen, which causes the entire unit to thrust forward as one. This Troop Special Skill affects Formation very little, so this unit is able to maintain its defense rather easily. More advanced units begin to thrust twice and then three times, with some pretty lightning effects as well. Bow Footsoldier - These troops have more defense but slower speed than their mounted counterparts. Their Troop Special Skill is likewise Concentrated Fire. Again, more advanced types fire in waves of three or five. Gun Footsoldier - Again, these troops have more defense and less speed than their mounted counterparts. Their Troop Special Skill is likewise Concentrated Gunfire. They fire in waves of three and five like the other projectile units. Ninja (female are Kunoichi) - These are the strongest units; in exchange they typically have a low maximum troop number, meaning the unit will be quickly destroyed if they take damage. The Ninja's Troop Special Skill is the Zan'eigiri, which causes the entire unit to move through the enemy unit very quickly. This is unforunately the weakest of the Troop Special Skills, as if it clashes with any other, it will be defeated. The Kunoichi's Troop Special Skill is the much more useful Shuriken, which is a projectile attack that charges very fast. Its range is much shorter than the bow or gun fire, though. Bombadiers - This unit has the lowest overall stats. Their only saving grace is their Troop Special Skill, which are quite naturally bombs. They can arc like the archers, so they have less chance of hitting your own units, and they are also more powerful at first. In the late game, however, Bombardiers become next to worthless, as archers begin to outpace them. More advanced Bombardiers do not fire in multiple waves, but the color of the bombs changes to indicate increased damage. 4. WALKTHROUGH The game is divided into thirteen chapters (twelve on the first play- through). Each chapter has a number of minor battles and normal battles as described above; after clearing a certain number of normal battles, one or more major battles will appear. Clearing those will end the chapter. I've accordingly split the walkthrough by chapter. Each chapter will begin with an overview of that chapter, and then a description of each battle will follow. Each battle will list the number of deployable units, the predetermined units for that battle (i.e. which generals must be involved in that battle), items on that map, special items gained for receiving high rank at the end of the battle, special conditions for getting generals to join your army, and finally a walkthrough of the battle itself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER ONE -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles None Normal Battles 吉良大浜の戦い Battle of Kira Seashore 犬山の合戦　Battle of Inuyama Major Battles None This Chapter has a piddling two battles, both of them which are given to you automatically (there is no Conference period beforehand, in other words). The battles are tremendously easy and you'll even get tutorials throughout them, should you wish. Battle of Kira Seashore Deployable Units: 1 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 拘束の初歩 - In the river to the right. 木製軍配 - To the left of enemy home base. Special Items: 長巻騎馬衆 十文字槍 Generals: None The purpose of this battle is to simply destroy the enemy home base at the very north of the map. Your only unit is Nobunaga. Simply proceed forward and attack the enemy units as you encounter them. Nobunaga starts with Mounted Spear units, which have the very fast-charging Charge as their Troop Special Skill. Take advantage of this by knocking enemy units back with a chain of four normal attacks, then charging your Troop Special Skill and letting loose. Once you reach the river, turn right and head upstream a bit to get the item there. To cut down on time you can use Nobunaga's General Skill Shippuu (raises unit speed). Head back and to the north again; you can either break the enemy fortifications or ignore them. Once you draw near the enemy home base, you'll be attacked by two units at once. They're still pretty weak, though. Try to get them both in front of you and use Charge to cut through both of them at once. Remember to guard (with L1) when necessary. Once you defeat them, break the barricade and you'll encounter the 'boss' of this stage. He hits harder and has more troops than the other units, but if you guard at the appropriate times you should be just fine. Once you've defeated him all you need to do is break the purplish enemy home base to win the stage; don't forget to pick up the item that's up and left from the enemy home base first, though. Battle of Inuyama Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Mori Yoshinari Items: 持国天の札 - Upper right corner. Special Items: 国人の鎧 銀杏穂槍衆 Generals: None Your objective will be to defeat Oda Nobukiyo in the upper-left corner. You'll have two squads, one with Oda Nobunaga and Mori Yoshinari starting in the lower left, and another with Maeda Toshiie and Niwa Nagahide in the lower right. The Toshiie/Nagahide squad will actually have a much easier time, as Niwa Nagahide starts with a Bombardier unit, whereas Mori Yoshinari starts with a relatively unhelpful Katana Footsoldier unit. Advance both squads forward to the middle of the cross. You'll likely have to switch between the two as they encounter enemies to keep casualties at a minimum. Once you've reached the middle of the cross, send one squad up a little ways to the northwest; the other one should go and retrieve the item to the northeast, though there is an enemy unit lying in wait up here, so be warned. Once you've grabbed the item (preferably with Nobunaga, using Shippuu) send both squads in to attack Nobukiyo at once. He isn't terribly threatening; just remember to guard and counterattack appropriately and he'll go down in no time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER TWO -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 岩崎の反乱軍 Rebellion at Iwasaki 小牧山の山賊 Bandits of Komakiyama 品野の謀反軍 Coup at Shinano Normal Battles 稲生の合戦 Battle of Inou 赤塚の戦い Battle of Akatsuka 村木の戦い Battle of Muraki Major Battles 桶狭間の決戦 Decisive Battle of Okehazama At the beginning of this chapter Nobunaga's wife, Kichou, will join your army. She comes with Shippuu and Kaifuku learned, making her a pretty valuable ally. This is your first 'real' chapter with a Conference period. Check out the merchant if you wish (though in general, the merchants don't have anything tremendously great). Note that for this and all other chapters, only one Minor Battle appears at a time; as you clear each Minor Battle, the next one becomes available. To complete this chapter you must clear all three of the Normal Battles and then clear the Decisive Battle of Okehazama. Rebellion at Iwasaki Deployable Units: Predetermined Units: None Items: 大釘後立兜 - Lower right corner. Special Items: ひすいの数珠 腰巻 Generals: None Keep in mind that Oda Nobunaga does not need to be deployed in Minor Battles. Thus, Minor Battles are a good way to raise the levels of your lesser generals. This isn't terribly important now but it will become much more important as your army gets bigger. This battle is pretty simple - your task is to destroy all of the enemy units. It's not too hard at all, but in order to get Kyoku ranking you'll have to be pretty quick. You can form two squads, so send one to the northwest, and the other to the southeast. The sole item in this stage is to the southeast as well so remember to pick it up. Have both armies work their way towards the fort in the northeast. The enemies are not too hard, but be sure to switch to manual control of a unit if they get into trouble. Bandits of Komakiyama Deployable Units: 3 Predetermined Units: None Items: 野武士衆 - Northeast of the northwest fort. Special Items: 桜の髪飾り 打刀 Generals: None This is a pretty easy battle. All you have to do is defeat the leader of the bandits camped out to the north. Of course, for the sake of your points ranking, you should defeat as many of the other bandits as possible. The best way to accomplish this is to set Niwa Nagahide (likely your only ranged attack unit at this point) as a squad support and continually smash R1 when you find a unit. This will allow you to bomb them (remember to block!) while you're attacking them. Coup at Shinano Deployable Units: 3 Predetermined Units: None Items: 多聞天の札 - East of ally home base, south of middle forest. Special Items: 回復の初歩 鍵槍騎馬衆 Generals: None This battle is somewhat different from the earlier ones; it's mostly a defensive battle. As soon as the battle begins, quite a number of enemy units will charge your home base. Thus you'll have to hold them off. Spread your units out and take out the closest units first. Each individual enemy unit isn't very hard at all, so you'll have no trouble if you take manual control of your units. Once you fend off the initial wave of enemies, the only enemies left will be the boss and one of his support units. Remember to pick up the item and charge their base with all of your units. Battle of Inou Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 金箔押軍配 - Slightly northwest of the lake. Special Items: 増長天の札 短弓騎馬兵 Generals: Takigawa Kazumasu - his unit is west of the center area in the dead end. Defeat him and he'll join you after the battle. Shibata Katsuie - he's the boss of this stage. He'll join you after the battle. Your goal is defeating Shibata Katsuie, camped out in the northwest area of the map. Nobunaga starts out in the southeast; give him a support unit, and set another squad in the southwest. As the battle begins, advance forward and defeat both enemy units in front of you. Then with the west unit, travel forward a little to the northwest and you'll encounter Takigawa Kazumasu. He's not a very strong unit by himself so you should be able to take him out with relative ease. He's one of the very scarce Ninja-type generals, so by all means recruit him. Afterwards have both of your units rendezvous south of the lake. Send both of them crossing the lake at once, as enemy units are lying in wait on the other side. Take out the ranged units first if at all possible, or you'll have trouble. In the forest just northwest of the lake, you'll find the sole item on this stage. Then simply charge Katsuie with both of your squads and he'll go down pretty easily. Battle of Akatsuka Deployable Units: 3 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 信楽茶壷 - Northwest dead end path. 疾風の初歩 - Southeast dead end path. Special Items: 佐倉槍馬僧兵 三鍬形前立兜 Generals: Kinoshita Toukichirou, Hachisuka Koroku - they'll show up as reinforcements for your army during the battle and join your army proper afterwards. This battle is pretty straightforward. Your task is to defeat Yamaguchi Samanosuke in the northeast of the map. At the beginning of the stage have Nobunaga advance forward and defeat the unit in front of him; meanwhile have the other squad advance eastward. There will be a hidden enemy unit here, so defeat it, then take the item that's in the dead end behind them. Meanwhile with Nobunaga advance into the dead end directly north of him for the other item on this stage. Now have both units rendezvous in the middle of the map. As you progress forward, Kinoshita Toukichirou and Hachisuka Koroku will show up as reinforcements for your side in the southwest. Ally units are not manually controllable and show up as blue on the map. Their arrival will prompt some of the enemy units blocking your way to head after them instead. Wait until they've left a bit, then take out the remaining units. Your allies can get into trouble, and it's worth points, so afterwards go ahead and head west to help out your allies. Finally head back to the northeast and take out Samanosuke en masse. You have plenty of time on this map (i.e. you can let quite a bit pass and still get 100 points) so take your time. Battle of Muraki Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 鋳鉄鏡 - Back of enemy home base. Special Items: 沈勇の兜 沈香の数珠 Generals: Sassa Narimasa - pick up the glowing object in the southwest of the map and he'll join your army after the battle. Your goal here is to defeat Matsudaira Motoyasu camped in the very north of the map. There are quite a few enemy units in the middle path, so it might be tempting to go around and attack his camp from the sides. However, the northwest of this map has mines, so it's definitely not recommended to attack from this direction. Have Nobunaga's squad attack Ookubo Tadayo north of him, and the western squad advance forward and defeat Ishikawa Kazumasa. Then have the western squad retreat backwards (pick up the glowing object in the southwest while you're at it, to have Sassa Narimasa join you) and join Nobunaga in the middle of the map. Send one squad along the eastern path (there are archer towers and enemy units here, but not too tough) while the other squad cleans up everything in front of the enemy home base. Now attack Motoyasu with both squads at once. With the squad coming from the east, remember to pick up the item that's behind him before you actually defeat him. Decisive Battle of Okehazama Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Yoshino Items: 大鹿毛 - West of Yoshimoto's initial position. 雲水の覚書き - Immediately west of ally home base. 梓弓騎馬衆 - Furthest west point on the western path. 律義者の兜 - Defeat Matsudaira Motoyasu. Special Items: 狩衣風の鎧 左文字の打刀 Generals: Taigen Sessai - he's a ways north on the central plain. Defeat him and he'll join you after the battle. Here's your first Major Battle, and man, is it a woozy. This is unquestionably one of the hardest battles in the game, and it's even significantly harder than all of the Major Battles for the next few chapters. Before the battle, Kinoshita Toukichirou will introduce you to Yoshino, a priest girl with the supernatural ability to predict the weather. Yoshino says that there will be rain tomorrow... Oda Nobunaga and Yoshino will automatically form a squad along the western side of the map. The eastern squad will have a very tough time, so you'll want to spend most of your time controlling time. If you only want to win this battle, you can just run up the western side of the map and attack Yoshimoto from the back for a quick win. As soon as you defeat one enemy unit, it will start raining, just like Yoshino said. Imagawa Yoshimoto will seek shelter and leave his post, withdrawing back to the very north of the map. This is your chance as Nobunaga. Speed up the west side of the map with Shippuu and head for Yoshimoto. You will encounter one unit along the way, which will try to run and warn the rest of the army - be quick and defeat them before they can get away. There is another unit hiding out in the northwest corner, but this guy isn't too tough either. Then from there, just charge in and attack Yoshimoto. Guess he's sorry he left his pals now, right? What makes this battle difficult is trying to get all of the items, getting Taigen Sessai, and getting a Kyoku ranking. As the battle starts send Nobunaga's squad about halfway up the map along the west side. Let the CPU handle this for the most part; the eastern squad is going to have to fend off numerous rather tough units. Try not to move forward at all, or you'll simply attract more units. Once Nobunaga reaches his destination, pick up the item there, and then double back. Pick up the second item that's stuck in the little nook between your home base and the forest, then have Nobunaga's squad rejoin your other squad along the main plain. Now you'll simply have to fight it out. Avoid taking on more than one unit at once; other than that, there isn't much strategy involved. Defeating Matsudaira Motoyasu will get you your third item. Work your ways north and defeat enemy units as they come and attack Yoshimoto with both of your squads. You probably will waste a lot of time and subsequently get very few points for time, but it's better than losing your units; you'll just have to make up for these points by taking as few casualties as possible and using Troop Special Skills as effectively as possible. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER THREE -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 国府の野盗 Bandits of the Capital 千種の一揆 Insurrection of Chigusa 神戸の謀叛軍 Coup at Kobe Normal Battles 墨俣防衛戦 Defense of Sunomata 木曽川の戦い Battle of the Kiso River Major Battles 関ヶ原突破戦 Breakthrough at Sekigahara 稲葉山攻略戦 Attack on Mount Inaba The general goal of this chapter is to attack Mino, which is Kichou's home province. Nobunaga must establish his hold over Mino to have a secure base. This chapter features several Minor Battles and for the first time a choice between two Normal Battles - that is, as soon as you finish either Defense of Sunomata or the Battle of the Kiso River, the other one will disappear and you'll have to progress to the Breakthrough at Sekigahara. Since the items and generals that will join you during either of these Normal Battles differ, you'll have to choose what you want. Incidentally, the presence of chapters like this (where you must make a choice) means that you'll have to play through the game more than once to get everything. Bandits of the Capital Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: None Items: 信国の直槍 - West of ally home base. 伽羅の数珠 - Southwest of enemy home base. Special Items: 華美な鎧 唐冠形兜 Generals: None Since Kinoshita Toukichirou will have to be used later in this chapter, this and the other minor battles would be a good opportunity to raise his level. Make sure his health doesn't drop too far. An important strategy to consider is that if you manage to beat the leader of a unit during Tankikake (Solo Battle), that general's health will rise. Since the individual units in these minor battles are rather weak, this is a good opportunity to regain health for your generals. The map itself is very simple; just head your way north and defeat enemies along the way. Insurrection of Chigusa Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: None Items: 闘将の覚書き - Inside ally home base. 加賀槍僧兵 - Between the second and third archer towers. Special Items: 井戸茶碗 相模刀僧兵 Generals: None Like the previous battle, this is pretty much a giant slugfest. Just work your way north defeating enemies one by one. Thankfully, none of the units have any ranged attacks, so this will actually be easier than it seems, especially if you bring along your own ranged units. Remember to pick up the item between the archer towers along the west side before you defeat the boss close by. Coup at Kobe Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: None Items: 重藤弓衆 - Northeast of map. 大徳の兜 - Inside middle ally home base. Special Items: 青銅剣兵 菅槍騎馬衆 Generals: None You have three bases on the south of the river, while all of your opponents are gathered to the north. The only thing that makes this stage somewhat tricky is the fact that one of the items for this stage is inside your own home base, but it's surrounded by your fence. Since you cannot break your own fences, you have to let the enemy break through the fence before you can pick up the item. This isn't too hard. Simply send one squad up the east side and the other up the west. Defeat maybe 2-3 enemy units on either side, but leave the units in the middle of the river alone. With the eastern squad, grab the other item in the northeast, then have both squads converge on the enemy leader. Once you've defeated the enemy leader, all of the remaining enemy units will charge. Thus, follow the enemy units (but not too closely) and let them break the fence around your middle base. Once they've succeeded, charge in, pick up the item, and then clean up the rest. Defense of Sunomata Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Kinoshita Toukichirou, Hachisuka Koroku Items: 回復の初歩 - Behind Saitou Tatsuoki. 鯰尾形兜 - Northwest of map. 唐津茶碗 - North of the fork in the river. Special Items: 副将の鎧 帝釈天の札 Generals: Inaba Ittetsu - He's hanging out a bit westward from the enemy home base. Defeat him and he'll join your army afterwards. This is a purely defensive battle, and as such it has the distinction that even if time runs out, you'll win, and you'll get 100 points for the Time Elapsed rating. So take your time. Or, if you're impatient, you can just defeat Saitou Tatsuoki. Your fort is in the southeast. Hideyoshi's squad will be to the north, and they'll be in semi-permanent Attack Up, which is very nice. Just lay out another squad to the west and wait for the enemy. They come in waves, but unfortunately for Saitou Tatsuoki, only one or two show up at once, meaning you won't have much of a problem fending them off. Eventually Tatsuoki will get fed up and send the Mino Three after you. They'll also gain Attack Up, so they'll be a bit harder... but wait a minute, only two charge your castle. What happened to Inaba Ittetsu, the third of the Mino Three? As it turns out he's a little fed up with Tatsuoki and won't listen to his orders. If you go to the western side of the area Tatsuoki is in, you'll find Ittetsu there. The best thing to do is wait for his Attack Up to wear off, and then defeat him. This will let him join your party afterwards. The computer will set some reinforcements for you that show up about halfway through the stage, from the northwest. You can use these guys to pick up the items. If you feel confident enough, you can then charge in on Tatsuoki's location and defeat him, as no more waves will be coming. Battle of the Kiso River Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Kichou Items: 銀箔押軍配 - Just west of the enemy home base. 長柄騎馬衆 - Slightly west of center north of the river, between the second and third mountain ridges. Special Items: 槍鎌騎馬兵 知将の覚え書き Generals: Oyuki - Pick up all of the items on this stage and she'll join your army afterwards. The trick to this battle is that as soon as you approach the river, the enemy army will set portions of it on fire, thus blocking your path. The fire won't hurt you; it just won't let you through. In order to put out the fire, you'll have to send a squad up the river on the west side of the screen and find Saitou Toshimitsu. Once you defeat him, the fires will go out. Send the western squad back to join up with the rest of your army and cross the river. You'll have to double back a short ways to pick up the item north of the river. Assault the enemy home base with both squads and you should be just fine. Breakthrough at Sekigahara Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 野太刀 - Dead end in the southwest of the map. 大激励の初歩 - Dead end in the northeast of the map. Special Items: 千代女の装束 長寿院栗毛 Generals: Gamou Ujisato - Finish the battle with Oichi still having more than 1600 troops. The purpose of this battle is somewhat different from the others - you have to escort Oichi (as an ally unit she'll move automatically) to Azai Nagamasa's camp, in the northwest. Since her unit moves automatically, you can't afford to slack. With the western squad, pick up the item in the southwest, then send them to the center to join Nobunaga's squad. In the meantime you'll have your hands full with Nobunaga cleaning up all the enemy units that start appearing in the middle. Your only saving grace is the enemy fence which Oichi's unit is not capable of breaking; make sure you've cleaned up everybody below it before allowing Oichi's unit through. Once you do break through, Oichi's unit will pause briefly at the lake. Defeat the two enemy units that appear as quickly as possible. Then with one squad (preferably using Shippuu) pick up the item in the northeast; send the other squad westwards, as the enemy units in the west which you've ignored until now will attempt to head north and converge on Oichi. These units (Saitou Tatsuoki's) are the hardest units on this map, so try and get as many generals as possible to block their way. If Oichi reaches the northwest camp, you'll automatically win, but for the sake of points you'll still want to defeat Saitou Tatsuoki if at all possible. Attack of Mount Inaba Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Kinoshita Toukichirou Items: 白銅鏡 - Fort in the northwest. 守札後立兜 - Corridor leading up to south of enemy home base. Special Items: 無頼漢の鎧 小鳥丸 Generals: Takenaka Hanbei - He's north of the enemy home base as an enemy unit. Approach him with Kinoshita Toukichirou, however, and he'll disappear and join your army. As the stage begins Kinoshita Toukichirou will discover a hidden path, and he'll actually warp into the northwest fort. Pick up the item there with him and then have him sit steady while you control Oda Nobunaga's squad. Break through the castle gates and deal with the enemy units as you go (they aren't too hard yet). Once you head northwards, have Kinoshita Toukichirou break out of his fort and pincer the remaining enemy units on the west side while you attack with Nobunaga from the south. After cleaning them up, the only units left will be in the enemy home base. Have Toukichirou wait outside the enemy's west gate. Send Nobunaga's squad through the corridor leading up to the enemy's south gate, picking up the item along the way. Now break the enemy's south gate and draw their attention. They should all come charging after Nobunaga's squad. Quickly tell Kinoshita Toukichirou to break through the west gate and head behind the enemy home base (to the north) so you can pick up Hanbei. If you use the Objective Designation function you won't have to control him, so you can focus on defending Nobunaga, as the enemy generals are quite strong. Once you've picked up Hanbei, feel free to have Toukichirou's squad come down and pincer Tatsuoki from the north, though you may have already beaten the enemy by now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER FOUR -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 茨木の野盗 Bandits of Ibaraki 飯盛山の山賊 Bandits of Mount Iimori 交野の一揆 Insurrection at Katano Normal Battles 勝龍寺の合戦 Battle of Shouryuuji 多聞山の戦い Battle of Mount Tamon 池田の戦い Battle of Ikeda Major Battles 堺攻略戦 Attack of Sakai 越前進行戦 Advance on Echizen Like the previous chapter, you'll have to choose among the Normal Battles offered to you. This time you can pick any two out of the three. Personally, I think the Battle of Mount Tamon is the most annoying out of the three, so feel free to skip it if it's your first time through. When this chapter begins, Nobunaga will have completed his ascent to the capital, and thus Oda Nobunaga, Kinoshita Toukichirou (who'll have changed his name to Hashiba Hideyoshi), Maeda Toshiie, and Niwa Nagahide will all get spiffy new armors. An old acquaintance of Kichou, Akechi Mitsuhide, will also join your army. He comes with Gun Footsoldiers, and this chapter will mark the first appearance of such units as well as their mounted equivalents. Guns are more powerful than bows, but they cannot arch over your own units. Thus they are better suited to wide battlefields than they are to narrow corridors. Bandits of Ibaraki Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: None Items: 銀杏穂槍衆 - Northwest of map. 烏帽子形兜 - Break all four enemy archer towers along the central forest. Special Items: 道鏡の法衣 笹穂槍衆 Generals: None Pretty straightforward, all you have to do is defeat the boss of the units. You can take your time and still get 100 points, so just advance forward with both squads and take out the enemy units one by one. Stay away from the archer towers until you've taken care of the enemy units, then break them for one of the items. Pick up the other one in the northwest, then advance on the enemy home base with both squads. Bandits of Mount Iimori Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: None Items: 落雷の初歩 - Southeast of map, along the beach. 鉤鎌刀 - Keep going past the previous item (there is no box)! Special Items: 大崎槍馬僧兵 火炎前立兜 Generals: None Your goal is to defeat the enemy boss in his fort to the far west. You can form two squads which will pretty much attack independently up the far east and west sides of the map. Don't forget to grab the items off to the southeast. Other than that, just progress forward and take individual units as they come. As long as you don't encounter too many at once, you should be fine. Insurrection at Katano Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: None Items: 朴刀兵 - East of the southwest fort. 弓胎弓衆 - Northeast shore of the river. Special Items: 法師の帽子 荒武者衆 Generals: None Yet another beat-up-the-boss battle. Pretty easy, eh? The only mildly tricky thing about this particular battle is that of the three units that start on your side of the river, the ones to the east and the west are scouts. These guys will run to the north once they see you, and if you let them report to their pals up north, you'll be in big trouble. Suffice to say you're in no danger of being found as long as you don't move, so take one squad, use Shippuu (those scouts are pretty damn fast), run the scout down, and finish it off. Then switch to your other squad and do the same with the scout unit on the other side. Only then should you fight normally, assigning the CPU orders and such. Battle of Shouryuuji Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 大沈黙の初歩 - On the middle hill. 皆朱槍 - Inside the enemy fortifications in the west. Special Items: 伏竹弓騎馬衆 本小札銅の鎧 Generals: Nankoubou Tenkai - Deploy Yoshino during this battle. Once you've broken into the enemy home base, go along the path extending eastward from it and pick up the glowing item at the end of the path. Although Nobunaga is the only predetermined unit, you should put in Yoshino if you want to recruit Tenkai. Since Yoshino has bow troops, she's good for support anyway. As the battle starts, have both squads defeat the units right in front of them. Now pause before the barricade with the western squad (destroy the archer towers but do not break through yet). Don't get too close to the barricade as the enemy units on the other side can hit you with their ranged attacks if you do. With Nobunaga's squad, head forward until you find the small village and hit the glowing object. A villager will then tell you about a hidden pathway up to the mountains, and a new path will open up to the south. Go back south and now climb up the mountains. Take the fork westward to pick up the item, then go all the way around and now descend the mountain rapidly, attacking the three enemy units there. Once you've defeated them, break the barricades with both Nobunaga's unit and the unit you left to the south and pincer the remaining enemy units. Now all you have to deal with is the enemy commanders. Once you've broken through their main gate, keep them busy with one squad while you have the other run quickly to the east and pick up the glowing object there (again, only if you care about recruiting Tenkai). Then loop back and pincer the enemy. With both squads on them, it shouldn't take too long to defeat them. Battle of Mount Tamon Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 戸隠流鎖帷子 - Defeat the fake Hisahide that heads north. 百里黒 - Defeat several fake Hisahides. Special Items: 蒔絵軍配 鳥雄の兜 Generals: Shima Sakon - He's hanging out in the dead end to the west. Defeat him and he'll join your army afterwards. Your only goal is to defeat Matsunaga Hisahide, but this is going to be very annoying. First, Hisahide utilizes a bunch of fake Hisahides - 12 in total - to confuse you. Second, almost all of the enemy units on this map are in permanent Speed Up status, and they all try to run away from you. If you yourself aren't a Mounted Unit or a Ninja Unit, with Shippuu, you aren't going to catch them. Note that to get Shima Sakon to show up in his nook to the west, you have to defeat a few fake Hisahides first. Basically just follow the several fake Hisahides you see at the beginning of the stage and defeat them one by one. If you visit the northwest corner and touch the glowing orb, a villager will offer to guide you through the area. This will be manifested as a permanent Speed Up for your unit, though only the one unit that touched it will get it, so make it a good one. Use this unit to seek out and destroy the fake Hisahides - none of them are that tough. Once you've defeated them, the real Hisahide will show up in one of the corners of the map randomly. If you lost count, you'll know which one's the real one because a cutscene will start when you approach it. He's tougher than the others, of course, but he's still not too hard. Put him out of his misery and get this annoying stage over with. Battle of Ikeda Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 栄螺形兜 - Inside enemy fort to the southeast. 鳥銃衆 - South of the enemy fort to the northwest. Special Items: 則重の脇差 大疑心の初歩 Generals: Hattori Hanzou - He's in the little nook that's just north of the enemy fort in the southeast. Defeat him and he'll join your army after the battle. Araki Murashige - Defeat him (he's in the northwest fort) and he'll join your army after the battle. Alternatively, he'll automatically join your army after you finish the other two battles, so you don't even need to play this stage to get him. Your goal is to destroy the enemy forts while protecting your own. With six deployable generals, you should be able to form three squads. You should send one up north and one straight east and leave a third behind, as enemy reinforcements will show up periodically and attack your home base. Each individual base isn't too hard. First head directly east and attack the fort there while the other squad heads to the northeast. Pick up the item there. At this time the first of the reinforcements should show up, but if you left a squad behind as suggested there'll be no need to go running back to catch them. Defeat Hanzou in his little nook (like Takigawa Kazumasu, he's a ninja type unit, but he's not too tough by himself). You might want to have both of your squads join up now to attack the remaining forts if you're worried about time, but you should have a fair amount to split up. Attack of Sakai Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 無頼漢の兜 - Breaking a merchant house. 棒火矢衆 - Breaking a merchant house. 火遁の初歩 - Behind Amalia. Special Items: 天目茶碗 金剛樹の数珠 Generals: Sanzes - Pick up the glowing object east of Amalia's home base. Amalia - She'll join you automatically after the battle. Your goal here is to defeat the four enemy commanders scattered around the map. However, the bridge leading to the two enemy commanders on the western side (Saitou Tatsuoki and Amalia) has been flooded. In order to reverse the flooding, you need to visit the base in the northeast first. This map has several merchant houses marked (商人宅). You get two of the items for breaking the houses, so it's easiest to just break them all as you go along. Advance with both squads and attack Saiga Magoichi. He'll likely withdraw to the north once you beat up his pal. Now split up both of your squads and direct one to attack the merchant houses along the southeast while the other heads north to take care Magoichi from the side, and afterwards, to take on Momochi Sandaiyu and break the merchant houses up there. Remember to visit the northeast area to undo the flooding. Have both squads rendezvous at the bridge leading up to Saitou Tatsuoki. For the remainder of the stage you'll generally want to advance with both squads at once, as both Tatsuoki and Amalia are rather hard. Once you get to Amalia's area, keep her busy with one squad while you take the other to take out her supporting fire units. Also grab the item behind her, and break the gates leading to the corridor that goes eastward from her home base so you can recruit Sanzes. Hopefully you'll be fast enough so that none of the squad you left behind bites the dust. Afterwards all you have to do is defeat Amalia to end the stage. Advance on Echizen Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Hashiba Hideyoshi Items: 天明茶釜 - In the northern village. 呂宋茶釜 - Defeat Azai Nagamasa. 鋳鉄八花鏡 - Northwest of map. Special Items: 大回復の初歩 膝丸の兜 Generals: Fukushima Masanori - Finish the stage with Hashiba Hideyoshi's unit still intact. Your goal is to defeat Asakura Yoshikage, right in front of you. Pretty simple, right? Wrong. Before you know it, you'll receive a report that Azai Nagamasa, who you were supposed to be allied to, has come out to defend Asakura Yoshikage. You're going to be pincered very quickly, so your new objective is to have Nobunaga's unit reach the escape point in the southwest. Hideyoshi will show his valor in this battle, and as a bonus throughout the battle he'll be in Defense Up status. First take Hideyoshi's squad and destroy the enemies to the west. When you do, the villagers there will thank you and tell you that if you visit the village to the north, they'll help you out. Now advance very slowly towards Asakura Yoshikage's position. Once you do, reinforcements will show up to the south, pincering you; the theory is that if you advance slowly, you may be able to get the reinforcements to attack without attracting Yoshikage's attention, and it'll be much MUCH easier if you only have to focus on one set of units at a time. After defeating the reinforcements, turn your attention to Yoshikage. He's pretty difficult. Remember to take out his support units first. Now advance with both squads together slowly up and around to the northeast. You'll be attacked by Azai army units along the way, and once you get to the northeast part of the map, Azai Nagamasa himself will come out. He's pretty tough, and he has the special power to instantly heal his unit (unlike your pathetic gradual-heal skills) that will annoy you in this and future battles to no end. Just consider his unit as having three times as many troops as it says on screen. In any case, if you focus on him with all of your generals, he still should go down without too many casualties on your side. Now go and visit the village slightly to the southwest. Here you'll be thanked by the villagers, you'll get an item, and they'll open up a secret path through the mountains. Head through slowly with Nobunaga while you send Hideyoshi's squad straight west and then northwest to get the final item. There will be more enemies showing up, including your old pal Saitou Tatsuoki, but they are all pretty easy compared to Yoshikage and Nagamasa. Once Nobunaga reaches the exit point, you'll have finished the stage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER FIVE -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 垂井の野盗 Bandits of Tarui 北方の一揆 Insurrection at Kitakata 大桑の反乱軍 Rebellion at Ooga Normal Battles None Major Battles 姉川決戦 Decisive Battle of Anegawa This chapter has no Normal Battles, just the single Major Battle at Anegawa. It does have three Minor Battles so use them to level up and gather money/items before you proceed. Bandits of Tarui Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 朱塗蒔絵軍配 - Back of enemy home base. 丹波忍者衆 - East of southeast base. Special Items: 千鳥槍衆 ベルベル馬兵 Generals: None Your goal is to simply defeat the bandit leader camped out in the north. First send the eastern squad over to get the item next to your base, then advance forward slowly with both squads. The reason you'll want to advance slowly is that once you reach the river, enemy reinforcements will show up behind you. You'll want to turn around and take care of them before the northern units have a chance to come in and pincer you. Once you've taken care of the reinforcements, the rest of the battle is pretty straightforward. Don't forget to take the item in the enemy home base before defeating the bandit leader. Insurrection at Kitakata Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 木挽黒鍬衆 - Northeast of map. 阿弥陀様の守り - Defend all four towers. Special Items: 方天戟 相撲槍衆 Generals: None On this map your task is to defeat all of the enemy units while protecting your towers. You only need to keep one tower protected to win the stage, but if you want to get all of the items, you'll need to protect all four, including the one to the far north. As soon as the squad begins send one squad up to the northern tower, preferably with Shippuu. Send two others to defend the ones along the south side while you take control of a third to defend the remaining tower, north of the two south ones. Each individual enemy unit isn't too strong, so you should be able to defeat them quickly. Switch amongst your units freely to deal with the tower most under attack. Once the unit to the north has taken care of the two units attacking that tower, you can send them to the northeast of the map to get the item there while you clean up the rest of the enemies to the south. Once all of the units have been defeated you'll get the remaining item if you've successfully defended the towers; now just converge on the enemy home base with your four squads and take out the remaining two units for the win. Rebellion at Ooga Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 鳥毛植兜 - Along the central T-shaped mountain on the southeast face. つげの数珠 - Northwest of the ally home base. Special Items: 三日月茶壷 大崎槍騎馬衆 Generals: None Your task here is to defeat the enemy leader. Your own home base is far to the north, and it begins the stage already surrounded. Since you can deploy five units, you should send three units to the squad already in that base and have the remaining two units comprise the southwest squad. When the stage begins, direct the southwest squad to attack the enemy fort to their east while you control the squad in your base. You'll have to fend off several waves of attacks, coming first from the east. During the breaks between waves, switch to the south squad and control them. Once they've defeated the enemies to the east, send them around to the east to pick up the item. If my short description above is confusing, it looks like this: ------------ |x o | | where o is the enemy fort and x is where the item is. This drawing is definitely not to scale. In any case, once you've defended against all of the waves, simply converge on the enemy home base and defeat the leader to finish the battle. Decisive Battle of Anegawa Deployable Units: 7 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Kichou, Akechi Mitsuhide Items: 沈勇の鎧 - Along eastern edge in the river. 小雲雀 - Inside enemy home base. 鳥銃騎馬衆 - Along western edge in the north part of river. Special Items: 兵法の極意 来国光の槍 Generals: Katou Kiyomasa - finish the battle with Hashiba Hideyoshi's unit still intact. This is one of the hardest battles you'll have had in awhile, although it's still not as hard as Okehazama in Chapter 2... While Nobunaga, Kichou, and Mitsuhide are predetermined, you'll want to deploy Hideyoshi too in order to recruit Katou Kiyomasa. First with the two western squads, advance slowly up to the river and take on the enemy units as they come. Then switch the Mitsuhide's squad over to the east and head north (picking up the item along the way). He'll be attacked along the way, so be careful. Once you get to the north bank of the river, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Honda Tadakatsu will show up in the northeast as reinforcements. As allies you cannot control them yourself; however you can set Objectives for them on the battle map, so use this feature well. Once Mitsuhide's defeated the enemy units attacking him, have him rendezvous with Tokugawa Ieyasu and switch back to the two squads in the west. Immediately across the shore is Azai Nagamasa. Take one squad and defeat the ranged support units behind him first, or you'll get into huge trouble. Now focus all of your attention on Nagamasa. Again, he'll be able to insta-heal 1 or 2 times, so don't let down your guard. After defeating him, send Tokugawa and Mitsuhide to defeat the enemy unit south of the enemy home base (Saitou Tatsuoki). With Nobunaga's squad, pick up the item to the west in the river, then converge on Tatsuoki as well. After taking care of him, attack with all of your units (feel free to have Tokugawa take point; he's strong and I don't believe casualties for his units count against you) at once on the remaining Asakura home base. Remember to take the item in the base. He's easier than Nagamasa, in my opinion, especially with your whole army converging on him. Incidentally, the spear you get for "Yuu" ranking or above is a Kichou- only weapon that's quite good. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER SIX -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 細野の野盗 Bandits of Hosono 木造の一揆 Insurrection of Kojikuri 峯の謀叛軍 Rebellion at Mine Normal Battles 多聞山攻防戦 Battle of Mount Tamon 佐和山攻防戦 Battle of Mount Sawa 三河決戦 Decisive Battle of Mikawa Major Battles 野田福島の戦い Battle of Noda Fukushima 京洛の戦い Battle for the Capital The organization of this chapter is somewhat different from the previous chapters. Namely, you'll start out with a Major Battle, the Battle of Noda Fukushima (though you still have the opportunity to use the Conference period beforehand). Only after clearing this battle will the familiar pattern of Minor -> Normal -> Major Battles start. Again, you can only choose two out of the three Normal Battles in this chapter. Battle of Noda Fukushima Deployable Units: 8 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Amalia, Araki Murashige Items: 丹波くノ一衆 - Inside Amalia'a base in the east. 根来鉄砲衆 - Inside the area surrounded by fences in the middle. Special Items: 矢筈礼胴の鎧 樫の杖 Generals: Gincho - Deploy Kichou and pick up the glowing object just east of the river northeast of your starting position. Mori Yoshinari will leave your army right before the start of this battle. During this battle, you'll have to come to the aid of Amalia and Araki Murashige, who are being besieged by the enemy. Immediately send out one squad to Amalia's fort in the east and the other to Murashige's fort in the northwest. Don't worry about the enemy units in the southeast; they'll come out and follow you. Most of the enemy units are pretty weak, so you should be able to make it to the forts in good time. Make sure you pick up the items on this map; otherwise the battle isn't actually too hard, it's just matter of getting to your allies quickly enough. Once you get to the enemy commander, his two pals will show up suddenly to the west and south of his fort, so have some units lying in wait there or you'll be surrounded. The "Yuu" item on this map is a good upgraded weapon for Yoshino. After this battle Yoshinari's son, Ranmaru, will join your army. He'll have inherited everything from Yoshinari, so no worries on that account. Bandits of Hosono Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 照魔鏡 - Middle of map along east side. 安芸弓衆 - At entrance to O-shaped forest. 竜巻の極意 - Destroy the base in the southeast and walk over it (invisible box). Special Items: 備前刀衆 小鍬形前立兜 Generals: None Your goal is to defeat the enemies sprawled out all along the east side of the map. They have ranged attack units hidden behind fences, so you'll want to try and come in from the side if at all possible, lest you get caught behind the fence. Although you can form up to three squads, I think it's more efficient just to make a squad of three and a squad of two. Work your way slowly up the map, grabbing the item to the east. When the enemy fort is all that is left, send one squad to the entrance of the O-shaped forest to get the item, then come back and attack from the west with that squad and from the south with your other squad. Reinforcements will show up to the southwest of the enemy base, but you can easily pincer them from this position and they aren't too hard. Crush the bandit leader for the win. Insurrection of Kojikuri Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 兎耳脇立兜 - South of ally home base, behind fence. 瓦師黒鍬衆 - Northeast of map. 大和刀僧兵 - Northwest of map. Special Items: 芦屋茶釜 蒔絵軍配 Generals: None You'll start in the middle of an X-shaped path. With the left and right squads, defeat the enemy units just in front of you. If you don't move once the stage starts, you should be able to draw off one unit on each side to attack you first. Once you've taken care of those, finish off the remaining two units on either side. Now head for the barricades to your north. While you're breaking them, enemy reinforcements will probably show up just south of your base. Let them break your barricade (this is the only way to get the item on the other side), but be sure to be waiting for them once they do, or else they'll attack your base. Meanwhile with the eastern squad bust through the northeast arm of the X and grab the item at the top. Once you've taken care of the reinforcements, converge on the enemy leader in the northwest. Be sure to grab the item in his home base and then focus all of your attacks on him. He should be pretty easy. Rebellion at Mine Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 萩茶碗 - Northwest of map. 戟 - Directly south of enemy leader. 龍神の極意 - Destroy the enemy fort to the straight north. Special Items: 木曾槍騎馬衆 とび兜 Generals: None The enemy is massed across the river from you from the start. They'll actually come charging at you in waves, so there's very little need to move forward with either the eastern or western squad. They'll also only come one or two at a time, and they don't have ranged attacks, meaning they'll be a piece of cake. Let them come at you as you cross the river slowly. Once you've defeated them all, only the enemy boss should be left. Send one squad to the fort in the northwest to get the item there, while the other squad grabs the items south of the boss (in front of the fence) and north of him (in the fort to the straight north). Then just converge on him. This is one of the easiest stages in the game, and in fact on my first try I got a perfect (400) score on this stage. Battle of Mount Tamon Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 熊頭形兜 - Just south of center. 伎芸天の腰巻 - In the poison lake just north of Nobunaga. 上人の訓戒 - In the northwest fort. Special Items: 井上流鉄砲衆 紀伊くノ一衆 Generals: Kani Sainori - He's in the corridor slightly left of the center of the map. Defeat him and he'll join your army after the battle. As reinforcements will show up to attack your base partway through the battle, it would be wise to leave at least one squad behind, maybe even two. Carefully advance up the middle and defeat the enemy units as they come. Once you come to the split, take the western path; a unit will come down the eastern path to attack your southeast base, but if you left a unit down there they should be no problem. More pressing is the enemy unit on the western side. When you first approach, they'll probably try and run. Chase them, but not too closely - it's a trap, as Kani Sainori will suddenly show up and attack you. He's a pretty strong unit (about as strong, if not stronger, than the boss) so don't be afraid to retreat and regroup, and take him out with as many ranged attacks as possible while you defend. After defeating him and the other enemy unit, head to the western side. South of you is a poison lake. Of course, there is a fairly valuable treasure in it. So, use Shippuu and charge in and get out as fast as possible. Since squad support units will follow the squad leader, it's best to use a squad support unit to do this job (if you use a squad leader, the entire squad will tread into the poison lake). At this point you can probably send two squads up towards the enemy base in the northwest safely. Once there is only one base left, Matsunaga Hisahide will show up and attack your own home base. That's what the squad you left down south is far. Crush him (shouldn't be too hard), then finish off the last base Battle of Mount Sawa Deployable Units: 7 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Amalia Items: 落雷の極意 - Northwest of map. 透光鏡 - Southeast of map. Special Items: マッチ銃馬兵 信義の兜 Generals: Otsune - Deploy Maeda Toshiie and pick up the glowing object in the northeast. She'll join you after the battle. The vast majority of the units that will be deployed are reinforcements; in other words, they won't show up till part of the way through the stage. Be careful of who you designate to show up in the northwest; Azai Nagamasa will show up around the same time, so that unit is in danger of dying quickly unless they can withdraw quickly enough or they're strong enough to take on Nagamasa by themselves (unlikely.) You do get to decide the one unit that starts in the center. If you want Otsune, you're going to have to make that one unit Maeda Toshiie. I hope you've been building him up somewhat. As soon as the battle starts, two enemy units will charge your chosen unit's position. Send Nobunaga in to support them as fast as possible, or they'll be in a very bad situation straight from the start. As you defeat enemy units, more enemies as well as allies will show up one by one. Make good use of the squad reassignment function on the battle map. Azai Nagamasa will show up in the northwest after awhile. He's tough, but he won't do his usual insta-heal thing, so if you have at least two units on him he'll be manageable. Finally Asakura Yoshikage will show up in the north and head downwards. While he does, it would be a good idea to make a run and get the items and Otsune, as once you defeat him the stage is over. Provided you didn't take too much damage in the initial rush (no doubt the hardest part of this stage), you should be able to finish with a pretty good ranking. Decisive Battle of Mikawa Deployable Units: 7 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 諏訪神の軍配 - East side of the northern plain, next to the mountains. 孫子 - Defeat both of Shingen's companion units. 木曹槍馬曹兵 - Northwest of map. 払子後立兜 - North of the east part of the river. Special Items: 菩提樹の数珠 堰月刀 Generals: Kaisen Jouki - He'll join after you win. What's a Difficulty 10 battle doing in Chapter 6, you may ask? Well, if you pick this stage, you'll be facing the mighty Takeda Shingen and his nearly invincible cavalry units. If this is your first time through the game, I really don't suggest picking this battle. On the other hand, the rewards for this battle are tremendous, including the special rare accessory that lets you change any general's type to Hero. You shouldn't actually have too much trouble in the first part of the battle. The enemy units are tough, but not too tough. Once you get to the northern plain things get a little tougher. Sanada Masayuki is up here - you'll learn to hate him in this and upcoming battles, as he has a nasty tendency to use the worst possible General Skills on you. Silence him with Chinmoku if you can. Charge Shingen's camp; watch out for the bow units, as always. Try and take them out while the CPU keeps the other units busy, but in this battle, any CPU units are likely to get in trouble very quickly, especially with Shingen on them. Once you defeat Shingen, you'll be in for a nasty surprise - that wasn't the real Takeda Shingen! The real one will show up to your south. Thankfully he doesn't move, because two very tough reinforcements will show up, one from the northeast corner and one from the northwest. They're both equipped with one of the best mounted spear units in the game, meaning your defense is not going to be able to hold them off. Keep them on the defensive and by no means let them use their charge attack, or you'll just die very quickly. Once you've taken care of both reinforcements, it's time to charge Shingen's base. Again, you'll want to take out his support units first (not only because it'll make things easier, but also because it will get you an item). Hopefully nobody will have died by now, but you'll assuredly have taken plenty of damage. Still, with 4 or 5 units on Shingen, he'll go down in due time. Battle for the Capital Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 長鳥帽子形兜 - Third row from the top, west of river. 衣冠風な鎧 - Second row from the bottom, far east. 三条茶釜 - Northeast corner of map. 天運の初歩 - Defeat the Monogashira straight east of the north squad. Special Items: 住吉神の軍配 ガラティン Generals: Tsukahara Bokuten - He's hanging out southwest of the enemy home base. Defeat him with Tankikake (Solo Battle) and he'll join you after the battle. This battle can be pretty rough. Nobunaga's squad will start in the south- west corner, while the other squad starts in the northwest. Send the NW squad straight east to defeat the enemy unit hiding behind the fences, as they'll give you an item once you attack them. With Nobunaga, head up a row and slowly eastwards. Some of the enemy units will run from you; you can chase them with Shippuu, but I think this is generally a waste of time. Once the northern squad has done its job, have them camp out slightly in front of the barricade where Saiga Magoichi is waiting. Don't attack yet, though. With the southern squad, work your way slowly eastward. You'll be attacked by several strong ninja units along the way, so be prepared for some tough fighting. Once you've made your way to the eastern edge and gotten the item, double back and have that squad wait south of our other squad. Now with the northern squad break through the fence and attack Magoichi. The reason you should have waited is because around the same time, Saitou Yoshitatsu and Saitou Toshimitsu will show up and try and attack your squad from the south. Now with your own squad lying in wait, you can avoid the pincer attack. Both Magoichi and Yoshitatsu are still pretty tough, so be careful. Once they're both gone, head towards the northeast where Yoshiaki is waiting. Don't go into the fort he's in just yet, though. Clean up the unit waiting just west of the fort; south of that unit is Tsukahara Bokuten. If you want to recruit him, you MUST defeat him in a Tankikake. Once you do, you don't even have to defeat his unit, but you might as well. Now take whichever unit has more troops left and enter the base. As soon as you do, the doors will shut, trapping you inside. Unfortunately for Yoshiaki, he's trapped inside as well. He'll try and run from you. There's a heal point in the northwest of the enclosed area, as well as the final item in the northeast. Split your squad and corner him. He's pretty wimpy by himself so once you catch up to him, you should be able to take care of him rather quickly. Note that on Medium difficulty or above (basically your second time through the game or later), he won't be alone anymore, so be prepared to take out the enemies that show up to help him first. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER SEVEN -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 鯰江の野盗 Bandits of Namazue 三雲の山賊 Bandits of Mikumo 日野の一揆 Insurrection of Hino Normal Battles 朝倉討伐戦 Punishment of Asakura 小谷城攻略戦 Attack of Odani Castle 明智城救出戦 Rescue of Akechi Castle Major Battles 長篠決戦 Decisive Battle of Nagashino This chapter sees the Takeda army advance into Mikawa. Luckily for you, Takeda Shingen has already died (whether or not you did it yourself last chapter), and his army is now in the hands of his much less capable son, Katsuyori. As usual there are three Minor Battles and three Normal Battles - again, you can only choose two of them before you progress to the final battle at Nagashino. Bandits of Namazue Deployable Units: 2 Predetermined Units: None Items: 甲斐くノ一衆 - North of the two enemy bases in the north. 楽焼茶碗 - Enemy fort in the southwest. 童子切安綱 - Defeat the unit south of the enemy home base without being seen. Special Items: 縦矧胴の鎧 武蔵薙刀衆 Generals: None This is a fairly straightforward battle. You're limited to only two units; I'd suggest making them both single melee units, with at least one as fast as possible (mounted, Shippuu, the Kurokumo horse, whatever). The tricky part of this battle is getting the Douji-kiri Yasutuna sword, a rather good sword which you can only get by defeating the enemy unit just south of the boss without letting any of the scouts see you. You'll know if a scout sees you because an enemy reinforcement will show up immediately. Of course, the Douji-kiri Yasutsuna is not excessively rare, and you can even buy it in shops later on, so if you don't care too much about it just rush everybody and beat them all. Otherwise... First, direct your southern unit to head back east so that the scouts moving inward from the west won't see them. Don't worry, they'll turn back after awhile. Now with your northern unit, as fast as possible, travel up and to the northwest, sliding between the fort with the arrow towers and the hill immediately to the west. Your goal is to get in there before the scout unit coming in from the west sees you. Once you've gotten there (preferably having broken the archer tower in the meantime), advance to the north. Be careful as there is another scout unit just to your west. Watch your map and wait for them to turn around. Once they do, make a dash for the north. You want to get above the two enemy forts. Pick up the item that's up there while you do. The rest is pretty simple. You'll want to squeeze past the western one of the two forts, which you can easily handle by breaking its northwest corner. Then just loop around south and north again and defeat the unit. If you did everything correctly, you should get the sword as soon as you do. Now it's time to go all out. Send the southern unit westward to clean up the enemy while the northern unit doubles back and assaults the two northern forts. You don't have to get every unit to get a reasonably good rating, but you do want to get the item hanging out in the southwest fort. When you think you've beaten up enough enemies, return to the northwest and take out the enemy leader. Bandits of Mikumo Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: None Items: 根来銃馬衆 - In the northern fort. 美濃刀衆 - In the southeast fort. Special Items: 穴沢流薙刀衆 疑心の極意 Generals: None You'll be able to make two squads, one starting out in along the west and the other along the south. Your goal is to defeat the enemies in their northeast base. However, you should be sure to destroy the enemy bases in the north and southeast first. Not only do they each have an item, but as long as they're standing, enemy reinforcements will continually show up. If you're not careful, they can slip past you and attack your base. Each individual unit isn't that strong, so just make sure you take them on steadily. Once you've destroyed both bases, the enemy reinforcements will stop. Now you'll be able to converge on the northeast base. Insurrection of Hino Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: None Items: 錫杖後立兜 - Southeast corner in the shallow water. 大和刀衆 - Directly south in the middle, in the water. 鶴女房の袴 - Northeast of the northern fort, next to the hills. Special Items: 甲賀忍者衆 種子島鉄砲衆 Generals: None You have two squads again, one in the south and one in the northwest. The south squad will immediately be attacked by two enemy units, so start by controlling them. In the meantime have the northwest unit loop down and attack the western fort there. Once both squads are done, grab the item in the south with one squad while you send the other back to the northwest. Attack that fort (this one has plenty of arrow towers, so beware). With the southern squad, attack the fort to the east. Then send them to the southeast into the shallow waters to grab the item. With the northern squad, keep progressing eastward (don't forget the item up there) and finally converge on the northeastern fort with both squads. Punishment of Asakura Deployable Units: 8 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 天衝前立兜 - Along the western path against the western edge. 呂宋茶壷 - Northwest of map. 日向弓僧兵 - Northeast of map. Special Items: 稲富流鉄砲衆 膝丸の大鎧 Generals: Odani Yoshitsugu - Defeat the enemy units attacking the town to the west, talk to the villager there, then talk to the villager in the north. Your goal here is to defeat Asakura Yoshikage. You cannot let him run away; he'll head to the northwest. Thankfully he's rather slow and pauses occasionally. Make sure you set a squad along the western trail so you can cut off his escape route. Send Nobunaga's squad to attack the units hanging around the village, while the other squad in the main area heads north towards Yoshikage. They'll be attacked, of course, so handle them. Let Yoshikage go for now. Meanwhile have the western squad advance forward as well. They, too, will meet with enemy reinforcements. Switching rapidly between your units is the key. With the western squad, grab the item there, then have them move to the northwest corner. Hopefully by now you've defeated the enemy units loitering around the main area. Talk to the villager and they'll ask you to help out the village to the north. Chase after Asakura now. Once you reach the northeast area, Saitou Tatsuoki will show up to bug you once again. Don't worry, this'll be the last you see of either Tatsuoki or Yoshikage. With one squad head off Tatsuoki while the other squad continues pursuing Yoshikage. Meanwhile the western squad should have reached the northwest corner. There's an item there; once you pick it up, head back south and to the east to corner Yoshikage. With the squad coming in from the east, grab the item in the northeast, then converge on Yoshikage. Remember to check out the village; also, Yoshikage has some reinforcements show up, including rifle units, so be careful. Either way once you get multiple units on him he won't be too tough. Take care of him once and for all. Attack of Odani Castle Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Unit: Oda Nobunaga, Hashiba Hideyoshi Items: 棒火矢騎馬衆 - Northwest of the town outside the castle. 蛇頭形兜 - Small room to the west upon entering castle. るりの数珠 - Far west room of castle. 歯翼月牙 - Northeast of the town outside the castle. 金塗蒔絵軍配 - Room above Hideyoshi. Special Items: 沈黙の極意 信義の鎧 Generals: Toudou Takatora - He's in the room southwest of Hideyoshi's position. Defeat him and he'll join your army. It's time to finish things with Azai Nagamasa. Hideyoshi's squad will show up later, meaning you'll start with your squad of three at the bottom of the map. I suggest you split off one unit and send them down to the town in the southeast, if you want some items. There are a few enemies down there, so be careful and don't send a totally defenseless unit down. Bust into the front gates and defeat units one by one. There's not too tough individually. Once Hideyoshi's unit shows up, have him attack the enemies in the room to his north. Upon defeating them, this will weaken some of the remaining units on the map. Continue north with Hideyoshi and defeat Azai Hisamasa in the north. He'll give you a key, which will open some of the doors in the castle that you couldn't get through otherwise. Now send Hideyoshi to the room southwest of where he originally started and defeat Toudou Takatora. This will convince him to join you after the battle; as a bonus, he'll open the door in the west of his room so you can rendezvous with your first squad. Now just advance together to take on Azai Nagamasa. Of course, keep him busy with several units while you seek out his bow support units and take care of them first. He doesn't do his insta-heal in this battle, so don't worry about that. Just beat him from several directions at once and he should die easily enough. Escape from Akechi Castle Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Akechi Mitsuhide Items: 白銅八花鏡 - South of map, in the dead end to the west. 不動明王の札 - Along the east, in the dead end to the north. 甲賀くノ一衆 - Hills south of enemy base, forest path will open. 朴刀 - South of enemy base, south of the many barricades. Special Items: 修験者の書 薄鉄板の兜 Generals: Ishikawa Goemon - He'll appear once you get to the eastern part of the map from the southwest. Defeat him and he'll join. The game will automatically choose three units to deploy to your castle in the northeast. These units will not actually show up until you defeat the two enemy units besieging them with Nobunaga's squad. Remember, you can change the units assigned as reinforcements, but you cannot remove them. With Nobunaga's squad, travel along the winding path. Watch out for the archer towers, they're probably the most dangerous part of the trip. Pick up the two items along the way. Once you get to the eastern part of the map, Ishikawa Goemon will show up. Ignore him for now and continue on to the castle. Defeat the two enemy units besieging it. Since Nobunaga's squad has probably taken some damage by this point, have him head back to take on Goemon. The other squad (which should have appeared in the castle now) will have more problems to deal with. With them, head along west, hugging the hills to the south. You don't want to attract the attentions of the enemy units to your west. The villager along the hills will tell you about a hidden path. Head to the forested region south of the enemy home base. Once you get close to the item (it's an isolated square on the battle map), a path will open to the item and you can retrieve it. There is an enemy unit down here, but they're pretty easy. Also pick up the item next to the enemy barricades. Defeat Goemon manually if you haven't yet. At this point you can either ignore the remaining enemy units and charge the enemy home base (if you're running low on time) or you can clean up the enemy (if you think you're low on points). In either case you should attack them from behind the fences. If you try to attack them from the east, all four of them will rush you and you'll be in trouble very quickly, as all of them are quite strong. It's better to take on two at a time. They also use some pretty strong General Skills, so try and silence them with Chinmoku if you can. Now head on to the Takeda base. The two units there will be in constant Defense Up status, so don't attack needlessly. It's better to guard with a high defense unit of your own while you rain down arrows and projectiles on them. Casting status-effect General Skills will be a waste as they'll just revert to Defense Up status, but Ninja Magic works great at thinning their ranks. Decisive Battle of Nagashino Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Yoshino Items: 八升栗毛 - Southwest, after crossing the river. 夜叉の兜 - Enemy base in the west. 回復の極意 - Enemy base in the east. 甲斐槍馬僧兵 - Against the hills in the northwest. Special Items: 律義者の鎧 十握剣 Generals: None Akechi Mitsuhide will leave your army before this battle to do his own thing. This means you'll have lost a gun unit, most likely, which is a pity because this battle above all others show the power of gun units. Thankfully you'll receive two Upper Class Gun Footsolder units for free. Tokugawa Ieyasu and Honda Tadakatsu will be camped out behind their fence to the east. You should equip one of the gun units on Nobunaga. I suggest putting another gun unit (such as Sanzes) behind the fence to the west. Nobunaga will have Yoshino with him; put another projectile unit with Sanzes to round things out. Now I suggest that your remaining units be one fast melee unit and one projectile unit. As soon as the battle begins rearrange your squads. Have the melee and projectile unit split off and form their own squad. Have them head to the west immediately, above the river. Pick up the item there, then have them head north to attack the enemy supply depot there. They'll encounter resistance along the way, but the units there are pretty weak so you can let the computer do this. You'll have more problems down south. The Takeda cavalry will charge you. Basically you'll want to control a gun unit manually and spam their Troop Special Skill (three- stage Concentrated Gunfire) on the cavalry units as they try to break down your fences. They WILL succeed eventually so before then you'll have to try and defeat as many as possible. Once your fences are broken, regroup. Hopefully there won't be too many cavalry units left. There are heal points to the east and west of your home base if you get into trouble. Katsuyori himself will charge. Try and hold him off (Tokugawa makes a great shield). Your strike team squad in the west should be pretty near to taking out the west fort by now. There is an item and a heal point there. Now charge out to the north. Once you do, turn around and head south along the hill for an item, then have them charge to the eastern fort. They shouldn't encounter any enemies at all since all of the Takeda army will have charged southwards, so use Shippuu and run for it. Basically the only problem at this point is that the AI might have defeated Katsuyori before you can get the item. Once you've picked up all the items concentrate on Katsuyori. With Tokugawa Ieyasu and Honda Tadakatsu keeping him busy, you can just keep shooting him with your gun units and take him out pretty easily. The "Yuu" rank item for this stage is a good upgraded weapon for Nobunaga. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER EIGHT -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 大溝の野盗 Bandits of Oomizo 朽木の一揆 Insurrection of Kutsuki 国吉の謀叛軍 Rebellion at Kuniyoshi Normal Battles 松永討伐戦 Punishment of Matsunaga 木津川口の決戦 Decisive Battle of Kizugawaguchi 九頭竜川決戦 Decisive Battle of Kuzuryuugawa 明石の戦い Battle of Akashi Major Battles 石山決戦 Decisive Battle of Ishiyama With the Asakura, Azai, and Takeda armies out of your hair, now is time to contend with the Mouri, the various priest sects, and the Uesugi. In order to avoid being surrounded, Nobunaga will send out generals on their own missions. Mitsuhide is still gone, and during this chapter you'll lose Shibata Katsuie, Maeda Toshiie, Hashiba Hideyoshi, Hachisuka Koroku, Niwa Hagahide, and Araki Murashige. Don't worry, you'll get them back later (well, most of them) and they'll have levelled up for you. I hope you've been levelling up Kichou, Amalia, Mori Ranmaru, and the few others you'll have left though. This chapter has four Normal Battles; again, you can only pick two before you proceed to the Decisive Battle of Ishiyama. Bandits of Oomizo Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 板札胴の鎧 - Defeat all of the scouts before they head east. 根来鉄砲衆 - Enemy fort in the northeast. 種子島鉄砲衆 - Enemy fort in the southeast. Special Items: 千手院長吉 雑貨鉄砲衆 Generals: None This map is the X-shaped layout that should be familiar to you by now. You'll start in the lower left; the enemy base is in the lower right part of the X. As soon as the stage starts there'll be three scout units in front of you. In order to get one of the items (a fairly nice armor), you need to defeat all three of them before they can reach the middle of the X and report to their allies. Switch immediately to a fast unit, use Shippuu, and chase them. Try to run over the two smaller ones and catch up to the larger unit which will probably be in the back. If you can get north of them, turn around and use your attacks to drive them south. Once you've got them all cornered they should be pretty easy to handle. Afterwards all you have to do is defeat the boss in the southeast. There is an item in the northeast, but you'll have to fight through tons of gun units and gun towers, and I personally don't think it's worth it. If you're a completist, though, send in a squad with defense high enough to guard against the constant gunfire you'll be facing (i.e., NOT a mounted unit). The road south is pretty much the same way, with a bunch of cannons lined up along the west wall. Sneak in and take out the cannons while you can, but don't get in too deep or you'll be surrounded by gunfire. Take out the units two at a time. Once you get to the enemy base, just send in units via both entrances (watch out for the gun tower) and surround them. Insurrection of Kutsuki Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 美濃刀僧兵 - On the east side just north of the river. 左官黒鍬衆 - Enemy fort in the northwest. 変化の極意 - Inside the center home base. Special Items: 備前刀僧兵 直垂風の鎧 Generals: None Although you'll start out with a squad of two and a squad of three, I highly recommend spliiting off a unit from the squad of three and leaving them down south, as reinforcements will be coming throughout the battle. They're triggered when other enemy units are defeated, and running back to defeat them is a pain. Send your squads up both side and take out units from the outside in. As mentioned, a reinforcement of two units will show up every time you take out a significant enemy unit. These units will head south, so use the unit you've left down there to beat them up. Most of the reinforcements are of the Bombardier type; they can do significant damage to your bases, but they have crappy stats, so if your unit is any good at all you should be able to handle them. Take out the ones that head for the east and west bases; when reinforcements head for the center home base, let them break the barricade. Once again, there is an item behind your own walls that you have to let the enemy break for you. As long as you leave somebody behind to protect your bases, this won't be too hard at all. Finish off the boss in the north base for the win. Rebellion at Kuniyoshi Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 陰陽師の書 - Northeast of map. 国友鉄砲衆 - Southwest of map. 大将の鎧 - Do not allow enemies near ally home base. Special Items: 甲斐槍騎馬衆 朱塗一の谷兜 Generals: None This battle is pretty easy, though it will require some advance planning if you want to get the special armor from it. Your base is in the southwest of the map; you can form two squads. I'd suggest putting the squad of three at the northeast corner so you can split it later. Once the stage starts, split off a unit or two, then immediately run to the south (use Shippuu if necessary) to cut off the unit charging your home base. I'm not sure exactly how far away you need to keep enemy units to get the item, but the further the better. Meanwhile have the western squad head north and occupy the units there. It's pretty straightforward once you get into position. Just fan out slowly, not letting any units past you. There won't be any reinforcements or anything tricky. Remember to grab the items (one's back near your base) before you take out all of the units. Punishment of Matsunaga Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 地蔵様の札 - Closed in south room between both entrances. 混天截 - Inside castle near Matsunaga Hisahide. 紅蓮の極意 - North of castle in area enclosed by towers. Special Items: 南部弓騎馬衆 梟雄の鎧 Generals: Yagyu Muneyoshi - Defeat Yagyu Muneyoshi during Tankikake. He's outside the castle walls to the east, south of where the wall is broken. Niwa Nagahide and Araki Murashige will rejoin you temporarily for this battle. This battle is a little odd. Matsunaga Hisahide is hiding in the middle of the castle, but in order to get to him, you need to defeat 5 of his generals and collect 5 keys. You'll be able to make two squads, so you don't have to waste that much time getting them. The location of the keys are as follow: -with Nobunaga's squad, go to the eastern path upon entering the castle and head north into the dead end. -with the eastern squad, head up north then turn east into the square with the cottage. -with Nobunaga's squad, head up into the northwest corner of the castle. -with Nobunaga's squad, head back south and into the middle; the general is hiding behind the two gun towers lined up right next to each other. -with the eastern squad, exit the castle from the broken east wall, then head north and west again through the gates. If you want to get Yagyu Muneyoshi, he's also outside the castle, to the south. Remember to beat him up with Tankikake. Hisahide is in the middle of the castle where the large building is conveniently drawn. Once you get there, he and two other units will show up. Charge to the back of his area and to the west for an item. Then just beat him up to finish the stage. Decisive Battle of Kizugawaguchi Deployable Units: 7 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 封神演義 - Ally base, second from the right. 蓬莱鏡 - Northeast corner of map. Special Items: 沢瀉の兜 金山姫の装束 Generals: Miyamoto Musashi - Defeat Miyamoto Musashi during Tankikake. Niwa Nagahide and Araki Murashige will rejoin you temporarily for this stage. Your simple task is to defeat all enemy units. Cannon fire from your ships will be bombarding the enemy the entire time, so it's actually pretty simple. Your only concern is if any enemy unit ever reaches the areas in the south marked by circles, you instantly lose. This is important because one of the items is behind one of the barricades there (second from the right) and naturally you need to let the enemy break it. In other words to get the item, you need to let the enemy attack the barricade (the second enemy unit that comes in through the east side should head straight for it if you don't bother them) and immediately attack the unit the moment they break it. If you charge in too late, well, they'll just rush in and you'll lose. If you don't want to go through the hassle, don't worry - there's more than one way to get that item, and it doesn't even carry over from game to game, so no point in worrying about it too much. The Mouri army commander is hiding out in the west area behind the hills, so don't send a unit in there alone. Otherwise everybody is pretty easy to handle. Miyamoto Musashi is hanging out in the northeast (he doesn't charge), and you'll need to beat him with a Tankikake in order for him to join you after the battle. Decisive Battle of Kuzuryuugawa Deployable Units: 7 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 放生月毛 - Middle of map on the east side. 羅刹の兜 - Dead end in northeast of map. 越中槍僧兵 - South of center on east side. 矛兵 - Dead end in northwest of map. Special Items: 唐皮の鎧 激励の極意 Generals: None Shibata Katsuie and Maeda Toshiie will rejoin you temporarily for this battle. Here's another Difficulty 10 battle... and the reason is because you'll be facing one of the toughest and smartest generals of the Sengoku period, Uesugi Kenshin. Of course, like the Decisive Battle of Mikawa earlier, it does have its rewards, such as one of the best armors in the game and a rare horse you can't get anywhere else. You can form three squads at the south. Do NOT let all three advance at the same time, because if more than one squad gets attacked at once, you'll just eat tons of needless damage. Start upwards with Nobunaga's squad, very slowly. As soon as you enter the mist-covered area, Kenshin, Naoe Kanetsugu, and a third generic unit will surprise attack you. They are of course extremely tough. However, once you've done a bit of damage to Kenshin, he'll decide that you aren't even a challenge for him and withdraw, leaving things to Uesugi Kagekatsu. Don't worry, you'll have a chance at revenge later. Continue onwards with Nobunaga to the village up north and touch the glowing object. A villager will tell you that Kenshin often visits a holy ground in the north, and that there are three giant rocks that have some sort of connection to the holy ground. You'll see these marked on your map. Have Nobunaga's squad head up a little on the west side and switch to your other units. With your eastern most squad, head on east and defeat Honjou Shinenaga. Meanwhile have your central squad break the rock to the far south before heading back up the middle. After defeating Shinenaga, break the rock behind him and pick up the item behind him. Now have that unit head north along the next path over westwards (the one that leads to a fenced off area on the map). They'll meet with little resistance, so switch to your central unit and head north towards the third and final rock marked on your map. You'll have to defeat some units along the way, including some tough bow units, so don't slack on the defense. Once you break the rock up here, there's a heal point behind it should you need it. Now send the squad back to rendezvous with Nobunaga. With the squad you sent in to break the fence, grab the item behind it (the rare horse) and also send them back to rendezvous with Nobunaga. Now advance as one northwards. Once you get to the very top, grab the item in the northwest corner, then split your army down the two paths and attack the two generals at the bottom. As long as you don't rush in alone, you'll be fine. Now regather your army south of the Uesugi main camp in the center, and charge in and defeat Kagekatsu. Again, he won't be too tough. This will prompt Kenshin to reappear in the north of the map. Reassemble your squads and head on up. Send one squad to the far east to grab the final item before you rush Kenshin's position. Now you'll see why you went out of your way to break those rocks earlier. If you hadn't, Kenshin would have been able to call on the protection of the Buddha and permanently silence all of your units while you're in his sanctuary - definitely NOT a good thing. Now that you've broken the rocks, however, you can be really mean and silence him instead. In any case make sure you take out Naoe Kanetsugu first, as he has some nasty bow attacks. Then just surround Kenshin and send him off to fight Shingen in Heaven. Battle of Akashi Deployable Units: 7 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 横矧胴の鎧 - Dead end straight north of starting position. 円山形南蛮兜 - Dead end north of the north village. 銀漆蒔絵軍配 - Southeast of Shishido Takaie's position. 正木流薙刀衆 - Base of mountain southeast of Terumoto. Special Items: カルスト騎兵 日本号 Generals: Yamanaka Shikanosuke - Talk to the villager in the north village, then defeat Shishido Takaie. Hashiba Hideyoshi and Hachisuka Koroku will rejoin you temporarily here. This is another tough battle, this time against the Mouri. Your south facing squad will encounter two gun units very quickly. They're extremely weak, but they have permanent speed up, and as soon as you defeat them two more will take their place. This will go on for quite awhile, so what you should try to do is pull your whole army north at the same time (so it takes longer and longer for the replacements to reach you). Bust through the fences and take care of the gun units there, then send a unit or two up to the village in the north. The villager there will tell you that it seems like Shishido Takaie has captured a general... hmm. With those units, grab the item north of the village, then advance southwards all together to take on Shishido Takaie. There will be enemy units hiding in the trees along the western edge of the path the entire time, so be careful. Upon defeating Takaie, Yamanaka Shikanosuke will thank you and he'll join after the battle. But first things first... Head on north now. Again, there will be some hidden enemy units, and also some cannons guarded by some tough sword footsoldier units. You will want to destroy all the cannons though, or the rest of the stage will become impossibly tough. Once you've defeated them all, it's time to head down the final stretch. The Mouri navy is constantly bombarding the shore, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about their ships. If you took out the cannons earlier, though, there should be some 'safe areas' for you to progress southwards along, mostly along the very edge of the beach (in the shallow water). Mouri Terumoto himself is down south, alone. However, as soon as you seen him he'll resurrect two of his pals (the cheater) and they'll try and surround you. Outwit him by surrounding his reinforcements instead (they show up slightly to his north) and take them out quickly, especially the one with the bow units. Once they're gone, Terumoto will be pretty easy to take care of. Decisive Battle of Ishiyama Deployable Units: 7 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 蒜頭骨朶 - Dead end in far northwest of map. 重厚な鎧 - Path from northeast to north of island. 雑貨銃僧兵 - Between Magoichi and the Miyoshi Three. Special Items: 三国黒 大礼の兜 Generals: None Niwa Nagahide and Araki Murashige will rejoin you for good now (well, Nagahide at least...). The end goal is to defeat the Honganji Kennyo, camped out in the northern part of the island. On the map, you can only cross the shallow waters marked by the lighter blue. Pretty evidently, charging straight in would be suicide. Leave Nobunaga's squad where it is while you control the eastern squad. A lone unit may attack Nobunaga's squad, as an advance warning, but they aren't too tough. Two of your units will be picked to show up in the north as reinforcements. Make sure to replace them if the game picks crappy units for you. With the eastern squad make your way onto the eastern part of the island. You'll want to destroy the cannons to your south. Then head to the north of the island and destroy the cannons there too. This should prompt your reinforcements to show up. Along the way you'll encounter several enemy units, most armed with guns, but if your squad has reasonably high defense they shouldn't be too tough at all. Switch to your reinforcements squad and head west across the shallows. Two more enemy units are lying in wait; take care of them and continue on to the patch of dry land in the northwest. Grab the item there, then head south to the building there. This will prompt a cutscene where the water drains and a new shallow path forms to the west. You can now attack Kennyo's position. You can send Nobunaga's squad up to rendezvous with the reinforcements if you wish; or, since the enemy units waiting at the south will charge once the new path forms, you can have Nobunaga block them. One of the items is sitting just inside the south entrance to the island, so if you want all of the items, defeat the charging units. I don't think it's that great though (it's a Gun Footsoldier unit), so it's your choice. Assaulting Kennyo is easy with a high defense squad, if you block all the gunshots. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER NINE -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 鈴岡の野盗 Bandits of Suzuoka 妻籠の一揆 Insurrection of Tsumago 飯田の謀叛軍 Rebellion at Iida Normal Battles 摂津平定戦 Pacification of Ettsu 伊賀平定戦 Pacification of Iga 甲斐平定戦 Pacification of Kai Major Battles None At the start of this chapter Kichou will leave your army. Rumors say she headed out to Akechi Mitsuhide. I wonder what for? Another loss will be Araki Murashige, but this time it'll be because he's betraying you to the Mouri. If you play the Pacification of Ettsu, though, you'll get your chance to punish the dirty scoundrel. This chapter has three Normal Battles, and again, once you choose two, the last one disappears. This chapter doesn't even have any Major Battles, although the event at the end is pretty major. The next chapter is for those of you who miss those Major Battles anyway. Bandits of Suzuoka Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: None Items: ヴォウジェ - Very north of map, in the middle. ハスタ槍兵 - Southeast corner of map. 豪壮な鎧 - Southwest of the Voulge. Special Items: フリント銃兵 妖術の書 Generals: None This battle takes place on the map with the T-shaped hill in the middle. You'll start with one squad on both the eastern and western sides; on both sides, a whole ring of enemies confronts you. Luckily for you they don't all charge at once (well, as long as you yourself don't charge forward too quickly) so at most you should only have to deal with two units at a time. Still you'll have to switch between manual control of your two squads rapidly. One of the items is in the shallow waters to the southeast. I recommend sticking a higher defense squad to the west while you control the east. This should allow you to wipe out all the enemies on the east side before the enemies on the west side is taken care of. Then grab the item. The other two items are way up north, past the hills, so activate Shippuu and head on over to the other side to pick up those items and eventually aid your squad. Nothing too tricky about this stage other than the sheer number of units. Insurrection of Tsumago Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: None Items: 骨喰藤四郎 - Northeast of map. 肥後槍衆 - Southwest of map. Special Items: 大島流槍衆 縫延胴の鎧 Generals: None This stage takes place on the X-shaped map. You'll have one squad covering the north part and the other covering the south. Although there are a lot of enemies, and more keep showing up as you defeat them, they're mostly weak Bombardier units so you can defeat them fairly quickly. Do watch out for the cannons (break them while you're waiting for the enemy reinforcements) and you'll be fine. Grab the items in the northeast and southwest, then converge on the base in the middle and defeat the boss. Rebellion at Iida Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: None Items: 夜叉の鎧 - Northwest corner. 根来銃騎馬 - Middle of map. 平家物語 - Destroy all enemy bases. Special Items: 中村流槍馬衆 変わり兜 Generals: None This one is really easy, despite how late in the game it is. There are two enemy forts to the north and two to the east. Just make two squads and send one north and one eastward. Your goal is to defeat all of the enemies; there's a few hidden in the center next to the hills, so make sure to root them out. Also remember to destroy all of the enemy bases, as this will get you an item (remember to do it before defeating all of the units). Pacification of Settsu Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: フランベルク - Next to the gun tower in the northwest. 吉田流弓衆 - Behind one of the fences in the south. ガイアの甲冑 - Defeat the reinforcement in the northeast. Special Items: マンブル刀兵 天狗前立兜 Generals: None It's time to take care of Araki Murashige. Head on eastwards; there is an item behind one of the barricades in the south here, so claim it. In the southeast, there is a glowing sign; when you get there, a small child will show you a secret path and you'll be able to warp to the northeast corner. Send one squad up this way. This squad will have a much easier time than your other one. You could progress with just this squad, but you'll miss out on one of the items (the Flamberge). With the squad that didn't warp, continue on. There will be all sorts of annoying traps, like mines and cannons, and once you get to the corridor heading north there will be no less than three significantly strong enemy units lying in wait. Once you defeat them (back up and keep your distance if you can), destroy the tower in the north and grab the item next to it. Now I suggest solely controlling the squad that warped to the northeast, as the remainder of the traps in the 'normal' path are really incredibly annoying (can you say flamethrowers?) The northeast squad will have a very easy time. At most they'll face two units at a time, and these units will be very weak. Once you get near Murashige's room, you'll receive a report that a reinforcement unit has shown up in the northeast, where you warped in from. You can ignore them (they won't charge you), but if you do defeat them you'll get a pretty good armor for the ladies. Still it's annoying to walk all the way back there, so use Shippuu to cut down on your time. Murashige himself isn't too hard, if your units are still relatively intact (i.e., you didn't take tons of damage from traps). Beat him up and show him the error in betraying the Oda. Pacification of Iga Deployable Units: 4 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 総髪形兜 - After warping to the southeast. 小伝太光世 - In the very north, in the river. 伊賀くノ一衆 - In the village to the east. Special Items: 伊賀忍者衆 少彦名の忍着 Generals: None Who doesn't like a good ninja stage? I hope you have pretty good defense. With Nobunaga's squad in the west, head up towards the first enemy unit you see, but don't pursue too closely; two other enemy units are lying in wait. As long as you can isolate them, they'll be pretty easy. Now visit the glowing object (villager) in the southwest. They'll tell you a secret about seeing the hidden paths. This will open up the northern part of the map. Visit the very center of the map. The glowing circles are warp points. Step in and you'll be warped to the southeast corner. There is an item here and another villager. He'll tell you that there are two rocks on the map (they'll be marked), and that once you break one, the other breaks magically as well. Warp back and break the rock, it's just to the north of you. Now head to the northeast. The rock that was blocking the path will be gone, sure enough. Send a unit up to the very north of the river to get another item. Then have your army step through the warp in the northeast. This will send you to the isolated area in the north, which is the village of Iga. There are mines here, but not much you can do about those. There is an item in the far east (a very good Kunoichi unit, so get it if you can), as well as several ninja units. Keep them away from your projectile units and you should be ok. After defeating a few, Momochi Sandaiyu, the Iga leader, will show up. He can be quite annoying (after all, he IS a head ninja). Silence him to prevent him from using his ninja magic skills, or use a ninja magic skill of your own. As a ninja unit, even though he's pretty strong on attack and defense, he doesn't have a huge number of troops, so just keep him busy with multiple units and you'll be fine. Pacification of Kai Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 謀将の兜 - Road leading north from southwest village. 松風 - Northeast of map. 那須弓馬僧兵 - Left of center of map. 矛騎馬兵 - In Yakura's room. Special Items: 盾無しの鎧 隕石の極意 Generals: None -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER TEN -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles None Normal Battles None Major Battles 関ヶ原遊撃戦 Guerrilla Battle at Sekigahara 岐阜城奪回 Reclaiming of Gifu Castle As opposed to the previous chapter, this chapter has only two major battles. Like Chapter One, you won't have a conference period; you'll just be taken from one battle to the next. Make sure you're well prepared before you leave Chapter Nine. Mori Nagayoshi will join your army at the beginning of the chapter; he'll inherit Mori Ranmaru's stats and equipment, just as Ranmaru inherited Yoshinari's stuff. Guerrilla Battle at Sekigahara Deployable Units: 2 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 吉祥天の千早 - Northwest corner. Special Items: 番匠黒鍬衆 黒檀の杖 Generals: None This battle can be easy or hard, depending on how good you are at evading the scouts. As soon as the battle starts, two messenger units will start running north. In the meantime, a scout unit will be travelling down the west side of the screen. You start with a pitiful two units, one of which is Nobunaga. I suggest splitting the squad as soon as the stage starts and leaving one unit in the southwest corner. Use Shipuu with Nobunaga and charge the messenger units as fast as possible. Ignore the other units you find; defeating the messengers is your first priority. They don't have many troops, so they'll go down fast. Now immediately withdraw with Nobunaga to the southeast. The scout unit coming down from the west will travel eastwards upon reaching the south of the screen, and you don't want them to find Nobunaga. In the meantime, while they're headed east, switch to the unit you left in the southwest and have them run up the west side as fast as possible. Again, Shippuu helps. The scout unit will start coming back up the west side, so you'll want to get as good a head start as possible. You can always hide along the dips in the side of the road, but this wastes a lot of time since you have to wait for the scout unit to come back down again. Grab the item in the far upper left, then charge Akechi Hidemitsu. Provided you didn't get spotted, there will be no reinforcements and you'll be able to take Hidemitsu on one-on-one. If your unit has even reasonably high defense, he'll be easy. Incidentally, getting at least "Yuu" ranking will give you Yoshino's best weapon. Reclaiming of Gifu Castle Deployable Units: 3 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 楠正成の書 - Defeat the enemy unit north of Toshimitsu. 雑賀衆銃馬衆 - In the isolated area in the north. 日置流弓衆 - Destroy the southeast cannon. 水晶の数珠 - North along the river bank. Special Items: 切付札胴の鎧 天業雲剣 Generals: None There are a lot of cannons here that can make your life miserable. Pay attention to the pre-fight lecture; as soon as you reach the point Nagahide mentions, the whole place will be set on fire. This will be important in a minute. Send one unit up north through the river to the furthest patch of dry land. There's an item there. Meanwhile cross the river westwards and charge the enemy with your main units. Take things slow and watch out for both the enemy projectiles and the cannons. Once you travel up northwards, you can now send units up the stairs to take care of the cannons to the east and north. There's also an item in the rather obvious dead end path to the north. Once you've destroyed the cannons to the north, it'll be safe to progress westwards and then south again. There's two south paths; a main one and a thinner one (up some stairs) that again leads to more cannons. Send one unit up (don't make them too wimpy as there are enemies up there) to destroy the cannons. Once the north-facing cannons are gone, you can charge the barricades with your main unit. There are no less than three enemy units on the other side lying in wait, so again you'll have to take it slowly. Meanwhile the unit up on top of the castle will have plenty more cannons to destroy. Destroying the one in the far southeast will give you another item. Once you reach the point Nagahide mentioned, your entire army will be warped there, so don't worry about gathering your units beforehand On the downside, because of the fire the timer will insantly wind down to 5 minutes left. In other words, you'll have to make the rest of the stage really damn quick. I suggest the following: Have the computer take Nobunaga all the way to the top and attack the west wall of Saitou Toshimitsu's compound. Meanwhile switch to another unit and run along with him. The first enemy unit you'll encounter will be confused because of the fire. Let Nobunaga and the computer take care of them. You should bypass them and head north. Break the gate and defeat the second unit, then break the next gate. Let Nobunaga charge into the area first, as there is a stronger unit lying in wait, and pincer the unit. Once you defeat them, let Nobunaga destroy the west gate and charge in to attack Toshimitsu. Meanwhile with your own squad head to the north of Toshimitsu's area (you'll have to break another barricade). There is a hidden enemy unit up here. It's not too strong, but defeating them will get you another item. Once you've gotten it, head back down and join Nobunaga's unit to finish Toshimitsu off. Getting at least "Yuu" on this stage will get you Nobunaga's best weapon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER ELEVEN -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 桜洞の野盗 Bandits of Sakurabora 松倉の一揆 Insurrection of Matsukura 高山の反乱軍 Rebellion at Takayama Normal Battles 安濃津の戦い Battle of Anotsu 北庄城救出戦 Rescue of Kitano Castle 富士の合戦 Battle of Fuji Major Battles 京洛決戦 Decisive Battle for the Capital Back to a normal chapter. There are the standard three Minor Battles (one of which is significantly hard) and three Normal Battles. You don't have to choose between the Normal Battles - you have to do all three before you can move on. During this chapter you'll get back several of the generals who left you a few chapters ago, so rejoice. Bandits of Sakurabora Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 鉄剣兵 - Enemy fort in the southeast. 謀将の鎧 - Enemy fort in the northwest. 弾弓兵 - Enemy fort in the north. Special Items: 厚鉄板の兜 直刀兵 Generals: None A fairly easy Minor Battle. All you need to do is beat the bandit boss, though this battle is so easy you should beat up everybody you can for the sake of it. There are items in the southeast and northwest, so send your squads in those directions first, beating up bandits along the way. Afterwards all you have to do is converge on the northern fort and take out the boss. Insurrection of Matsukura Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: ピン銃馬兵 - Southwest of map. 風魔くのいち衆 - Northwest of map, next to boss. Special Items: 風魔忍者衆 薄鉄板雪下胴 Generals: None For a minor battle, this is pretty damn hard. I think it rates harder than most of the normal battles in the game, if you ask me. Anyway, this stage takes place on the X-shaped layout. Your own base will be in the southeast, and one squad will start there. The other squad starts smack dab in the middle of the map, in an enemy fort with some cannons. Almost all of the enemy units are ninja or kunoichi units. This is a problem for you, as that means they'll all be fast, and all have rather high attack and defense. Putting in low defense units in the middle is suicide. Your goal is to eliminate all of the units, which will take some time. Start by controlling the middle squad. Immediately destroy the cannons, then turn your attention to the two ninja units coming in to attack you from the south. Another few units will come charging in from the north, but the barricade will hold them up for a bit. Try and get your projectile units in good position - you want them to be able to actually hit the enemies, but not in a position such that they'll get mobbed by the ninjas. Once you've taken care of the first wave, you can send your southeastern squad up north. They'll have a slightly easier time of things. Remember to destroy the cannons along the sides as you go. With the western squad, now head on down south. This arm of the X is relatively easy; just clean up the units left in the fort down south. There's also an item down here. The two northern arms are much trickier, in part because of the gun towers. They have pretty high offense, and even if you block you'll end up taking damage. Either destroy them quickly before any nearby ninja units come in, or lure the units away from the towers (not always feasible). There are also Bombardier units up here to make your life even more miserable. The northwest arm is the toughest, and coincidentally where the boss is. You'll want to enter his base from the east, not from the south; not only will you be able to destroy some cannons along the way, but there is another item here. There is also a tower. I suggest breaking the wall to the fort and waiting while the enemy units charge you. If you stay just outside of the fort, the tower shouldn't be able to hit you. Just block and let your projectile units whittle the enemy units down. When they're almost dead, rush in and grab the item and then finish them off. Rebellion at Takayama Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: None Items: 東方見聞録 - Inside home base. 種子島銃僧兵 - Area in middle surrounded by cannons. Special Items: 薩摩銃馬僧兵 山本流槍馬衆 Generals: None Compared to the last minor battle, this one is a piece of cake. This takes place on the map with the t-shaped hill in the middle. Your home base is in the southwest. There is an item in there, so you'll have to let the enemy break the barricade around it if you want it. Send the western squad up north, while you have the southern squad camp out just east if your base. Enemy reinforcements will show up almost immediately in the southwest, charging for your base. Let them break the barricade, then clean them up. They aren't too strong (though if you let them be, they WILL break your base surpirisingly fast). After that, there's nothing tricky left; just assault the leader in his fort in the north. Battle of Anotsu Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Hashiba Hideyoshi Items: 呪術の書 - East of home base. ランス槍兵 - Southwest corner. 井上流鉄砲衆 - Northwest, south of boss. Special Items: 蛟竜の鎧 デュランダル Generals: None Hashiba Hideyoshi and Hachisuka Koroku will rejoin your army for good at the beginning of this battle. Also, you'll now have access to one of Hideyoshi's vassals, Kuroda Kanbei. He's nothing too special, but at least he's one more unit you can throw into your projectile unit rotations. Your enemies are Isshiki Fujinaga in the northwest and Mouri Terumoto in the northeast. Terumoto doesn't arrive until later, so you'll have to go after Fujinaga first. Remember to equip Hideyoshi with upgraded equipment and troops or he'll die easily. As a nice bonus, Hideyoshi's squad starts the battle with Attack Up status. I prefer to split the two squads of three into three squads of two, but that's just my personal preference. Defeat the enemy units attacking your base (should be easy with all those Attack Up bonuses); now you can get started. First go into the little square north of Hideyoshi's initial position and talk to the villager there. He'll inform you that there are ships out to the east (it'll be marked on your map with a circle) that can take you closer to the Mouri camp. This is good because it will let you avoid the path being bombarded by cannons. Take the ship up and destroy the cannons; this will let you send up another squad for reinforcement later. For now focus on Fujinaga in the west side. His side is pretty straightforward, there aren't any traps or anything. There is an item in the southwest corner. Just defeat units as you go along, then take on Fujinaga himself. With a high defense unit you should be able to handle everybody. Fujinaga is a bow unit, so don't let him run away and take potshots at you. Now to take care of Terumoto. If you left a squad south by your home base (one or two reinforcements will have shown up by now, but they're hardly a problem) you can now head up the pathway previously being bombarded by cannons. Terumoto won't be much of a problem without his cannons and with multiple units on him. The Durandal you get for "Yuu" ranking and above is Amalia's best weapon. Rescue of Kitano Castle Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Maeda Toshiie, Shibata Katsuie Items: 愛の字前立兜 - After crossing first stream, head right. 龍淵 - In the northeast corner. Special Items: レイピア刀兵 羅刹の鎧 Generals: None Your goal is to first rescue Maeda Toshiie and Shibata Katsuie, who are being besieged at Kitano castle in the northwest, and then to defeat the Uesugi army camped out east. Take advantage of the fact that you can change Toshiie and Katsuie's equipment on the battle map - you'll want to upgrade their troop type at the very least so they have a better chance of surviving long enough for you to get there. Once Toshiie and Katsuie learn that Nobunaga is still alive, they'll go into Defense Up status. This is pretty helpful. They'll actually be part of your army, not an ally, so you can control them yourself if you need to. Head west and north with Nobunaga's squad and rendezvous with Toshiie and Katsuie. You'll encounter a few bow units along the way; just advance and guard when necessary. Once you've taken care of everybody besieging the castle, it's time to go after Uesugi Kagekatsu. Head eastwards and cross the stream. Turn right immediately after for an item. There is another item in the northeast corner, so grab that too. Then just bust through the gates as you reach them. There are hidden units here so don't go in too quickly, but it's nothing you can't handle. Toshiie specializes in Spear Footsoldiers, who boast the highest defense in the game, so feel free to take point with him if he isn't too injured from earlier. Kagekatsu has some Mounted Spear units, so a high defense unit should be able to stuff him easily. Afterwards, Katsuie and Toshiie will rejoin your army for good. Battle of Fuji Deployable Units: 5 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 封神演義 - Defeat Sanada Yukimura three times. 呉鉤 - Northeast of the dam. 小笠原流弓衆 - Northeast corner. 富士山形兜 - Along east wall, dip south of river. Special Items: 厚鉄板雪下胴 伊勢流銃馬衆 Generals: None Now this is a much harder battle than the previous two. First of all, there will be tons and tons of cannons making your life difficult along the north; there's also some tough, famous enemies here, namely Date Masamune's army in the west and Sanada Masayuki's army in the east. Sanada's army cheats a lot, by which I mean Masayuki's son Sanada Yukimura have a nasty tendency to keep coming back from the dead every time you defeat him. They're not even the bosses - the boss is Houjou Ujimasa up north, camped out behind his legions of cannons. Basically, this battle is going to be Very Rough. By all means do the other two Normal Battles first. On your own side you'll have Tokugawa Ieyasu. He'll bring along Okatsu, that cool kunoichi you saw way back in Chapter 3. Unfortunately, against an army like this, they aren't nearly the Invincible Shield like they were at Anegawa and Nagashino, so don't have them rush in blindly or you'll just waste them. You can place 4 units down besides Nobunaga. Put your better warriors towards the east, for reasons which will become clear in a minute. The first thing you'll need to do is close the dam, which is at the south of the map. You'll have to go up and around the mountains to get there. This will reduce the flow in the river so it will become crossable at all points. However, as soon as you reach the entrance to the mountain path, Sanada Yukimura will charge. Rather than get caught in the cannon fire, it's best to lure him with a single unit, then withdraw back towards the south as he charges. Block him with a high defense unit, then switch to a fast unit to take out his backup projectile unit that appears with him. Then just focus on Yukimura. Now head on down the mountain path. I suggest leaving your high defense unit at the very north of the mountain path. With some other units, head on down south. There are two enemy units next to the dam, but they're not terribly tough. Once you open the dam, the water flow will shift and you'll be able to cross the river at all points. Of course, this will prompt Yukimura to show up again - hence why you should leave a blocking unit at the north of the mountain path. Send your other units back to the entrance and again, take out Yukimura's supporting unit first. Now you can cross the river. Don't forget the item just to the south of the river in the little dip along the east side. I would cross on the east side and attack Sanada Masayuki from the east. I would also send in Tokugawa's squad first, as they'll provide a nice distraction. They'll spot the other hidden units for you, and while they're busy with Masayuki you can eliminate the other units as well. Yukimura will show up for a third time from the north, so be prepared. Once you defeat the Sanada army, Date Masamune will defect and join your side. This is why the squad you lay out on the west isn't that crucial, as up to this point they'll probably have only fought one enemy unit. Have Date head for Houjou Ujimasa's position from the west while you do the same from the east. It's best to come in from the sides, breaking the cannons as you go. With pressure from Date, Tokugawa, and your army, and none of his cannons to back him up, Ujimasa will be a lot easier to handle than those three incarnations of Yukimura. Decisive Battle for the Capital Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 太平記 - Northeast corner of map. バロック馬兵 - Top row, left of river. 雪荷流弓馬衆 - Third row from top, right of river. Special Items: 沢瀉の大鎧 片山一文字 Generals: None As this battle starts, Kichou will finally rejoin your army. Hurrah! This is it - it's time to get rid of that annoying Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Of course, he'll be annoying throughout this battle as well, so be warned. You'll be able to lay one squad in the northwest and another in the southeast. Each squad will be attacked by various generals one by one - the Miyoshi Three, Mouri Terumoto, and so on. Defeat them in turn. Eventually this will prompt Isshiki Fujinaga to show up in the southwest. Attack him, but not from the north; rather, travel down to his east side and attack him from behind. It's a lot better than eating cannon fire. Once he's gone, send all of your units up to the northwestern area. Yoshiaki is up here, in permanent speed up status, and the coward tends to just run away from you. You have to be pretty close to even spot him on the map. You'll definitely want multiple units on him to minimize his chances of running away. He's not too tough; just really annoying. This battle isn't as hard as the Battle of Fuji - the only limiting factor for your ranking is pretty much elapsed time, and how fast you can find Yoshiaki. Incidentally, getting "Yuu" ranking on this stage gets you Kichou's best weapon, if you haven't noticed that pattern by now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER TWELVE -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 笠岡の野盗 Bandits of Kasaoka 鶴首の山賊 Bandits of Tsurukubi 猿掛の一揆 Rebellion at Sarukake Normal Battles None Major Battles 播磨決戦 Decisive Battle of Harima 博多大戦 Final Battle of Hakata Here it is, the final chapter. Well, if it's your first time through the game, that is. Again, there are no normal battles; there is your standard complement of three Minor Battles, and two biggies. You should have plenty of cash by now, and the shop sells some of the best troop types you can get (though you'll have earned a few that are better, hopefully), so make sure everybody's as upgraded as they can get. Bandits of Kasaoka Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: None Items: 蒙古秘史 - South of enemy fort in the southwest. 種田流槍馬衆 - Destroy 4 enemy forts. スナップ銃兵 - North of the central fort. Special Items: 新陰流刀衆 直衣風の鎧 Generals: None Your goal is to defeat the bandit boss in his camp in the northwest. There are several forts lying around here, and as long as the forts are active, reinforcements will show up. That means destroying the forts is your first priority. Send one squad to the southeast and another to the west. Once those are gone, go take out the two in the north. You can also take out the fortification in the northeast, if you wish. While you're doing that, send a fast unit in towards the boss's lair. He's got a row of cannons here that you can't get around, so you'll just have to take the losses and break through as fast as possible. Once you get to the boss himself, he'll go down pretty quick. Bandits of Tsurukubi Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: None Items: 肥後槍僧兵 - Northwest of center. 信濃弓僧兵 - Northeast of map. 南部弓馬僧兵 - Southwest of map. 鋼鉄の南蛮胴 - Southeast of center arm. Special Items: 畑流弓馬衆 水滸伝 Generals: None Here's another stage on the x-shaped map. Your base is in the northwest, and for once you've got a few barricades and gun towers on your own side. The CPU will automatically pick two generals to camp out in the far northwest. Another squad will start pretty far away, in the southeast. The boss is in the southwest. First take out the units loitering in front of your base. You can use your own gun towers to annoy them if you can draw them close enough, though several will just run away from you (as they're projectile units). They shouldn't be too tough. With the southeast squad, take out the few units that are there. There's an item just south of the barricades in this arm of the X, so take that, then destroy the cannons lined up along the west. If you don't, invading the southwest arm will be much, much harder. I prefer to ignore the northeast arm. There's an item up here (a Bow Footsoldier-type monk unit), but I don't feel that it's worth the time and effort to get it. Either way, send your squads converging on the southwest now. Without cannons, it's pretty straightforward. Hack your way through. There's another item in the boss's base, so just grab that and then take him out. Rebellion at Sarukake Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: None Items: 呉子 - Southeast, next to barricades. 番匠黒鍬衆 - Far north in fort. 八条流銃馬衆 - Destroy all cannons. Special Items: 新当流刀衆 徐福の鎖帽子 Generals: None Your goal is to defeat all of the enemy units. Reinforcements will show up, but since you don't have a base yourself the only way to lose is to lose your units (or let time run out). In any case, once again I prefer to rearrange your army into 3 squads of 2 units apiece, instead of 2 squads of three. Leave one down south, then send the other two north, along the sides of the map. You want to come in from the sides, as the enemy has cannons. Pretty soon reinforcements will show up in the south (2 at a time from the east, then the west). The squad you left down there should be able to take care of those while you work on the enemies in the north. Before you take out the final enemy units, make sure you grab the item in the center of the north side of the map, as well as destroy the cannons and gun tower there. The reason is that as soon as you defeat the last enemy unit, the boss will show up in that base, and he's much easier to take care of if his cannons and gun tower are already gone. Finish him off to finish the stage. Decisive Battle of Harima Deployable Units: 6 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga Items: 行基の法衣 - South of where the cannons are lined up. 稲富流鉄砲衆 - In the northeast forest. 弾弓騎馬兵 - Southeast of Akechi Mitsuhide. Special Items: 堺銃馬僧兵 バルムンク Generals: None As Niwa Nagahide will explain to you as you start the stage, your army will split up into two and attack Mitsuhide's position from both sides of the map. The east squad will have to contend with the Miyoshi Three, while the western squad will have Mouri Terumoto to deal with. I suggest making the east squad a bit stronger than the other side, as the west side will get Tokugawa Ieyasu and Honda Tadakatsu as backup (they sure are handy, aren't they?). Send the eastern squad up while you take Nobunaga's squad north. The beach is being bombarded with cannonfire, so you'll actually want to stay off of it entirely and travel in the shallow waters to the west. This will keep you out of harm's way. There will be a few units to contend with on both sides, but nothing too hard yet. Once you reach the north, Ieyasu and Tadakatsu will show up. Go ahead and send them south first. You'll see plenty of cannons here, some of which were bombarding the beach you crossed earlier, but there are also some faced down your current path, so destroy those. Converge on Terumoto; he won't be too tough. Meanwhile on the east side, you'll soon encounter the Mouri Three. Make sure you take the one with rifles out first, or you'll have trouble. Without their rifle support, the other two won't be so tough. In front of Mitsuhide's camp is his famous (well, if you're a gamer...) relative, Akechi Samanosuke Hidemitsu. If you attack him from both sides, he'll go down easily. You'll even see a cutscene once you defeat him. Is Nobunaga making a sly jab against the Onimusha series, or just a historical note? You decide. Time to take on Mitsuhide himself. Again, I would send in Tokugawa's squad first. They'll discover several rifle units around here, and destroying them should be your first priority. There is an item in the southeast of Mitsuhide's area, so don't neglect that. Just hammer on Mitsuhide from all sides and you should be fine. Final Battle of Hakata Deployable Units: 7 Predetermined Units: Oda Nobunaga, Amalia Items: None Special Items: 青龍堰月刀 孤高の鎧 Generals: None Here it is, the final battle (your first time through, at least...). Seems like that punk Mitsuhide has gotten the backing of the Spanish Armada, including an old 'friend' of Amalia's, Pedro. Anyway, you'll be attacking from the beach in the southwest, and you'll eventually make your way around to Mitsuhide's position in the southeast. The computer will automatically deploy two of your units in the northeast - they'll show up later as reinforcements. I hope the computer picked some good units. With your two squads, work your way up both sides of the beach to avoid the cannonfire. There are some Spanish army units here, but not much to be afraid of. Just go along the sides and destroy the cannons when you get to the north. Up here, Pedro will taunt Amalia, then run away. That punk! Break through the barricades and continue onwards. There's not much to worry about as you get to the north. When you get to the northwest corner, Tokugawa Ieyasu and Honda Tadakatsu will show up in the north. Yay! Let them take care of the one enemy unit in front of them while you work your way eastwards. In your way are Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Hosokawa Fujitaka; send the coward running again. Rendezvous with Ieyasu - it's now time to take on Pedro. Unfortunately for you, he's got the Mouri army with him. There are tons of enemy rifle units here camped out behind barricades, so this is going to get messy. Your computer-picked units will show up around now. If they're pretty good units, you can use them to occupy the gun units from behind, but if you get unlucky like in my case and the computer picks two projectile units, you'll have to charge around the barricades from the front. Have Ieyasu and one of your squads take the brunt of Pedro and company while you take a fast unit around the barricades to eliminate the gun units from behind. Once you get Pedro down to about half of his maximum troops, he'll "see the light" and decide justice is with Nobunaga - that's right, he'll join your army! It's too bad you couldn't kill the bastard yourself, but now you have a new point man. Send him charging down into Mitsuhide's camp first. He deserves it. Follow up with Tokugawa's squad, and then your own squads. Rearrange your squads if need be to accomodate the reinforcements. Once again, Mitsuhide has several rifle units as backup. Araki Murashige also shows up again from the east, so take him out before you attract Mitsuhide's attention. He isn't too hard if you can focus purely on him. Now on to Mitsuhide and his legions of gun units. Occupy him with Pedro, Ieyasu, and one or two of your squads while you do a seek-and-destroy on your own. There is a heal point in the south of Mitsuhide's area, so use it if necessary. In this battle, Mitsuhide will heal instantly twice, just like Azai Nagamasa did in some of your earlier battles. Still, without his rifle units, and with the full brunt of Pedro, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Honda Tadakatsu, and your 7 units all on him, there's really no way you can lose. Finish him off and enjoy the ending. Once you finish the ending, you'll be able to save a sort of "New Game+" to your memory card. This starts automatically in Chapter One, so don't overwrite a save file you want to keep. See the Tips and FAQs section for more details on what goes on in New Game+. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER THIRTEEN -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Overview Minor Battles 笠置の山賊 伏見の反乱軍 宇治の謀反軍 Normal Battles None Major Battles 山崎大戦 Final Battle of Yamazaki 5. TIPS/FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Squad Formation Undoubtedly the best type of squad is one melee unit as the squad leader, coupled with a projectile unit (archers or bombardiers being the easiest to use) as support. This allows you to use the Supporting Fire combo very easily and effectively, which will give you tons of points for the Troop Special Skill factor in your overall ranking. If you have enough deployable troops to make a squad of three, add another supporting type that won't interfere with your own (i.e., mounted units with Charge probably are not so great; a kunoichi unit with Shuriken is awesome, though they can die easily so be warned.) General Skills Some skills are more useful than others, though you should definitely teach Shippuu (raises unit speed) to as many units as possible. Kaifuku (healing) is usually too slow to be any big help, but it's still nice to have in a pinch. Gishin (causes enemy troops to defect) is a great skill that can heal your own units as you damage an enemy's. Q. What's the deal with this New Game+? A. First of all, the difficulty will be somewhat increased. You'll notice even in the first battle that there are more enemy units than there were before. Next, there is an extra chapter at the end (Chapter 13); only by finishing this can you complete your collection, see the 'extra' ending, and so on. There are also several movies throughout the game that will only play the second time through and onwards. Some things will carry over and some won't. Each general's Troop Affinities and learned General Skills will carry over. However, rank will not. Weapons, armor, and helmets that are equipped on your generals will carry over; weapons, armor, and helmets that are just in your inventory, as well as all accessories, horses, skill books, and troop types will not. Gold will not either, so no point in hoarding it in the final chapter - just equip your generals with the best possible weapons/armor/helmets. (An exception is the Special Items you earn in the final stage - those are the only inventory items that carry over.) Q. What are the bonus generals I keep hearing about? A. There are two types of bonus generals you can get to join your army. One type requires you to have the save files for Sengoku Musou and Sengoku Musou Moushouden (i.e. Samurai Warriors/Samurai Warriors Xtreme Legends) on your memory card. Loading these files will get you Maeda Keiji and Inahime, respectively, from those games in your army. The other type requires the Enjoy Disc, which is only obtainable through the limited edition box set of Kessen 3. Having the Enjoy Disc, you can get Omatsu (Maeda Toshiie's wife), Sen no Rikyuu (Oda Nobunaga's tea ceremony instructor), and Fuuma Kotarou (a famous ninja) to join your army. Q. My generals keep losing health! What can I do? A. The shortest answer is to let them rest for one or two battles, but that isn't the simple answer. In fact it seems that if some generals are neglected for too long, they'll lose health anyway! The easiest thing to do is to use the Minor Battles to good effect. Remember that if you attack a unit with Tankikake, and defeat the unit leader (after defeating 100 enemies and getting maximum Valor), the general that you used Tankikake with will gain health back. Obviously they'll also lose health for having participated in the battle (and thus this method will never get them to top health), but if they have low health you can easily bump them up 2-3 ranks in one battle. At the very least you can gain them experience without having them lose any net health. Q. I can't get "Kyoku" ranking on such-and-such! A. The first to thing to remember is that you are rated on four categories: enemy troops defeated, casualties, time, and troop special skill usage. Each category is worth up to 100 points, and 300 points and above is Kyoku. Since defeating all of the enemies on the map will get you 100 points easily, the trick is balancing the rest. On maps where you can easily switch between squads (i.e., not more than one squad is attacked at a time), you can easily keep casualties down to a minimum. Thus you can not worry too much about time and try to get as many troop special skills to connect as possible (remember, you LOSE points if you eat your own TSS, so remember to block). On maps where this is not the case, you'll have to attempt to switch between squads as fast as possible. In any case, more so than time or troop special skills, the key to getting Kyoku ranking is defeating all of the enemy units while taking as few casualties as possible. Q. Is there a "Free Mode" type of deal in this game? A. Sort of. If you pick the "Gassen Emaki" (the Collection) from the main menu and look at the list of battles, you can select any of them with the O button. This will prompt you to load a saved game. It won't alter your saved game; it'll just load in your generals and their data and so on. This way you can now play that stage with the current state of your army; you could play a Chapter One battle with generals that you wouldn't normally have in Chapter One. The difficulty will be adjusted somewhat to compensate for your current level. Unlike the Warriors series of games, you won't get any items or earn any experience in this mode of play, so it's not appropriate to use for levelling purposes. Also keep in mind that Minor Battles are not recorded in the Collection. 6. CREDITS Thanks go to: Koei for another insanely fun game. The only website authorized to post this FAQ is www.gamefaqs.com. If you see this document elsewhere, not only are they posting without my permission, but they likely do not have the most current version of this FAQ. Emails to me asking questions already answered in the FAQ, even if the answers are not in the version you are reading, will be deleted without response. This FAQ Copyright 2005 to Edward Chang. Redistribution in any form, including reprinting in electronic or print media, without express permission of the author is strictly forbidden.