Great Conqueror Shogun: Conquests Guide

Some more miscellaneous observations that I think might somehow be useful to newcomers:

• For a faction to be within 'diplomatic range', the shortest distance between the closest castles of yours and theirs must be at most 2 castles apart, i.e. x-o-o-x with x being the concerned castles. Outside the diplomatic range, the relation trends will be steady (+0 per turn).

• For the 'demand submission' button to appear, the targetted faction must border either your own clan or a subordinate clan of yours. This knowledge might speed up conquests somewhat.

I have seen some people complaining they can't conquer fast enough to get S's, so Imma throw in some of my tips (tested mostly in Battles in Owari, idk if applicable in Armed Unification):

- Make up your mind early which clans you think you will conquer, subjugate, ally.

- The course of the conquest will go from building up strength (conquer) to at least Renowned, then you have enough threatening power to subjugate smaller clans, then finally sign alliances when you have a stockpile of resources lategame.

- Doing diplomacy is expensive, so you should only ally someone whom you can't conquer or subjugate in time. Therefore, you should only consider allying Ambitious clans. In Battles in Owari these include Miyoshi in the west, Ashikaga and Oda in the center, and Nagao and Takeda in the east.

- Ashikaga has a boost to prestige for being the Shogunate, and Oda naturally snowballs. These two clans are the only ones that might naturally reach Renowned, however this concern can be dismissed by striving to reach at least Zenith in every game and it's easy (I'm following balthazar's theory that being the most prestigious clan is a requirement for overall victory/hegemony).

- Miyoshi reliably loses to the pro-Shogun coalition and is denied a foothold in the main island, therefore locked in Budding. The Nagao-Takeda struggle in the east seems to be perpetual (I credit this to the general regeneration mechanic) which means the two will keep each other in Budding as long as they both exist.

- If you start in the east or center, I would recommend allying Miyoshi, because moving through water takes a lot of turns (so don't fight them). For Ashikaga and Oda, depends on whether you share a border with them early (relations turn sour quickly) or not (Oichi as hime might help). For Nagao-Takeda, pick a winner and fight the other, or ally both if you have money to throw.

- Enemy generals will come back, possibly on a stronger unit, so the point is not to rush to kill them, but the opposite, keep them alive! Weaken them enough so they flee and avoid confrontations.

- Try to capture more castles instead of killing generals. Enemies disappear when they lose their last castles. Hence in conquest war gears have an inflation in value, spam them.

- When prestige buffs come up, take mobility buffs. You are racing against both your enemies and allies. I don't mean to demonize your allies, but picture this: you needed that particular castle to establish a border with a clan you wanted to subjugate, but then your ally jumps in and steals that castle and now you have to siege another one an island away that will take 10 turns to achieve the same effect. Don't let it happen.

One thing , on challenge mode with 60 points enemy gens do not run from me even with 0 strength, even with one morale, but i see the waves of attacks stop when AI realizes or that we are strong enough there, or someone attacks smth precious or some crazy plan, and they follow like crazy to one point.

Last, blue monks are super cool because of many locations what gives big help in diplomatic, only matter of right conquering.

Not sure, but you can gain exp only in conquest runs, the first clear of a campaign mission, and Expedition.

Not sure about Tenkabito battles (daily invasion or fights to conquer).

From the obvious things when letting AI take over you should spam all your strong generals and make sure you have important buffs for 100 knowladge on.

AI is perfect when it has one attack direction, so try to keep that in mind.