

This being feudal Japan, it is also of course the Samurai who wind up much more remembered. Accordingly to their superior performance and noble status, Samurai are also much more expensive to hire and pay than Ashigaru.

Elites Are More Glamorous: Noble Samurai form the elite of your army and tend to be higher level, better trained, and much better equipped than the commoner Ashigaru soldiers of the same promotion tier, and Samurai can get horses, which are an awesome force multiplier in open field battles.

Do Not Run with a Gun: While you can fire a gun while moving on foot or horseback, your accuracy will suffer greatly, and all firearms present are muzzleloading longarms that can only be reloaded while standing still on foot.Even with these minor distinctions, some factions, such as Satake and Azakura, have the exact same trees down to the skirmisher specializations and final promotions. On the battlefield, what differences do exist beyond the semi-procedural generation of stats inherited from the base game manifest in Ashigaru skirmishers (some factions get gunners and some factions get archers) and the highest levels of the Ashigaru and Samurai trees - Each faction gets either elite Ashigaru skirmishers or spearmen, and two of their four Samurai branches can reach the Hatamoto rank. Cosmetically Different Sides: Downplayed - Each faction except the Ikko-ikki has broadly the same troop tree as all the others - Ashigaru that can become either skirmishers or spearmen, and Samurai that can become archers, gunners, cavalry, or melee infantry, and are largely distinguished by the color of their armor.Bow and Sword, in Accord: Most archers carry swords as backup weapons, and Samurai archers tend to be quite proficient with them.Army Scout: Mari has high Spotting and Tracking skills from the get-go.Very high controversy for a marshall makes it likely that they will be replaced. High controversy will prevent your king or queen from awarding you a fief. The more controversy you have, the higher the chance the soldiers will desert you and lower the chance vassals will join you. The only solution is to give up being marshall in that case. If you face war on multiple fronts or have a large kingdom to defend, you can expect to reach near 100 controversy very quickly. As Marshall: Any loss, such as having a village raided, caravan destroyed, peasants attacked, a lord losing a battle, a castle captured, or town captured will add to controversy in often large measures.Joining in or starting arguments with other vassals.Oddly, ladies will sometimes have controversy. Lords and the player can gain controversy.
