Shingen the Ruler FAQ by Eugene Whong
Written in Feb.2006
Introduction
Shingen the Ruler is a strategy game, in which you control
a warlord in Japan's feudal era and try to defeat all the other
warlords en route to becoming the Shogun, or de-facto ruler of
Japan. Interestingly you are only allowed to play as Takeda
Shingen, who the game is named after. The reason why this is
interesting is because he died, and his idiot hot-headed son lost his
father's entire empire in a single day. The details of this can be
seen in the Kurosawa film "Kagemusha". At any rate, Shingen nor
his clan actually historically won. But who cares about history?
We're here to change it! Let the quadruple diamond banner fly
over Japan forever! Err, anyway… The game itself wasn't very
popular. It was released by HOT-B, a company most known for its
series of Black Bass fishing games. With other competitors out
there such as Nobunaga's Ambition and Romance of the Three
Kingdoms, this game probably didn't get much play. This is why
my brother was able to buy it at clearance shortly after it was
released. It has many faults and exploitable quirks, but overall it is
a good game. While most games are easy in the beginning and
hard at the end, the general trend of this game is that it is extremely
difficult in the beginning and pretty easy at the end. Many people
probably quit out of frustration after the first 20 minutes. But once
you get into it, the game is quite fun. Let's start the FAQ then.
Start-up
The first thing the game asks you is to decide between SOUND
ON or SOUND OFF. Choosing SOUND OFF will allow you to
play with no background music, but you can still hear sound
effects. This is a good option if you want to play your CD player
while playing the game. The actual music is repetitive and
annoying at times, but the battle music is very addictive.
BEWARE!
Beginning
This weird looking bald guy with one eye asks you how many
occupied regions you give orders to. Being that it is your first time
playing, how should you know? The answer is one. In this game,
no matter how many provinces you conquer, you are only allowed
to control a maximum of three per turn. This is pretty annoying,
but the game would probably be too long, easy, and boring if you
could control all of your territory. He will ask this to you at the
start of every turn. I recommend that you always be doing as much
as you can, so choose the highest number possible. After you
select the number you will be taken to a map. The map shows
which territories are controlled by the enemy (blue) and which are
controlled by you (gray for territories, red for your capital.) You
must control at least your capital every turn. So use the map to
choose all the other provinces you wish to control. In the
beginning of the game, you only control Shinano and Kai. Kai is
your capital.
The Region Screen
This screen shows you the status of the current province and gives
you options for what you want to do. The province screen has a lot
of incomprehensible abbreviations. Let's go through them.
YLD -Yield, or how much rice the region produces.
DST - Disaster, how prone to disastrous events the region
is.
CLT - Culture, Probably a multiplier for YLD and WEL,
but not sure.
LOY - Loyalty, how willing the people will be to join
your army.
WEL - Wealth, how much money the region produces
from trade.
$$ -Available money in the region.
PRD -Products, or edible rice
G-M -Gold Mines, they create 5 gold per turn
PRI -Princesses, how many daughters you have
available to marry off to your
enemies to create alliances that you will eventually
break.
EPI -Epidemic, If there is an epidemic in the region or
not.
Pushing select will bring up an entirely new screen showing more
abbreviations. This screen shows the status of your heir and how
many troops of each kind you have in the region.
HE -Heir, the status of the boy that will one day inherit
your kingdom.
RNK -The rank of the military in that region.
EXP -How much experience the army has
HDQ -Headquarters
CAV -Cavalry
RM -Riflemen
AR -Archers
LNC -Lancers
INF -Infantry
On the right hand side is several red blocks with more
abbreviations. These are the things that you can do in the region.
You can do one of these things per turn.
Mi-Military
Here you can enlist more troops, go to battle, or move troops,
money, and rice to another region.
Enlist means to recruit troops. If you choose to enlist, baldy will
tell you how many troops you can get that round. All of the troops
you get from enlisting will be infantry, so if you want other types
of troops, you have to equip your infantry with other types of
equipment. Also, your loyalty, yield, and wealth decrease when
you enlist, because you are taking the most loyal people in your
population away from their jobs as farmers or businessmen.
Going means to go to battle. Your army in that region can only
attack enemy controlled lands adjacent to the territory you are
controlling.
Move means to move your troops, cash, or rice to any of your
controlled territories. Unfortunately you can only move to one
region per turn, so it's a pain if you have a lot of stuff in one land
that you want to send to many others. You can still do this all in
one turn. Follow my example below.
You have $3000 in the capital and you want to send $1000
each to provinces A, B, and C. Before the turn starts say
that you control three regions, and choose A, B, and C in
that order. Move $3000 from the capital to A. Move
$2000 from A to B. Move $1000 from B to C.
Ca-Castle
Use money to build additions to the castle to increase culture. I
don't really know how culture affects anything in the game yet, but
it's probably a good idea to have a high culture rating.
Fa-Farms
Here you can develop your farming technology or aid the farmers
monetarily. Putting money into development will increase yield.
Giving money to the farmers will increase loyalty and wealth.
Nothing like buying friends is there?
Fc-Flood Control
Use money to decrease the disaster rating, making the region less
prone to disasters. Disasters aren't really anything to worry about
if they come anyway, so don't waste your money on this.
Gm-Gold Mines
You can use your money to look for more gold mines, or you can
feed some bums to dig more for you. Baldy will tell you how
much rice you need per miner, then ask you how many miners you
want. It's a total crapshoot. Most of your income is going to come
from military booty or selling rice to merchants, so don't waste
your money on gold mines.
Al-Alliance
If you have princesses, you can marry them off to other warlords to
create temporary alliances that you will eventually break. In
addition to the princess, you need to give your enemy a cash
dowry, which he will undoubtedly use to increase the strength of
his military, which will only increase the difficulty of defeating
him later. I suppose if your military is spread out really thin, it
might be a good idea to make an alliance, but it's better to just
make a huge military with that alliance money so that the enemy
will be less inclined to attack you. You shouldn't be telling your
hot daughters who to marry anyway!
Mr-Merchant
The merchant comes along and you can buy stuff from him or sell
stuff to him. You will generally be buying military units from him
and selling him rice. When you buy military units from him it
changes infantry into whatever you bought. If you want to buy
100 riflemen, you need to have at least 100 infantry. If he is ever
selling rice for $1, then buy as much as you can, you can sell it
back to him later for much more!
Dr.-Doctor
If there is an epidemic you can pay him to cure the people. If there
is no epidemic you can pay him for preventative care. Epidemics
don't really affect anything in this game, so don't waste your
money.
He-Heir
The real Shingen's son was a dumbass who told his cavalry and
infantry to charge some dug in riflemen, losing his father's empire
in a day. You can make sure that your heir is not a dumbass by
paying lots for his education. There are three categories for your
heir, strength, IQ, and morals. It generally takes about $4000 to
max out IQ and morals, but strength takes about $10000 to max
out. These probably are multipliers for how well your military
fights, or how persuasive you are when recruiting, and how well
your tax collectors work. I've never seen Shingen die, so I've
never really needed an heir, but as it might be a random event, it's
probably a good idea to max out your heir's abilities.
Nj-Ninja
You can use the ninja to check the status of other territories. You
can also give him rice and he'll go try to kill enemy troops. I gave
him 200 rice and he killed 4 lancers. I'm sorry, I'd rather sell the
rice to the merchant and have $1000 to buy 25 riflemen.
Sv-Save
You can save the game only in the capital. If you're not using an
emulator it's a good idea to save every turn.
Ps-Pass
Do nothing. You should never do this, there is always something
to do. Sometimes snowfall will prevent you from going into battle.
If that's the case, enlist. If you can't enlist, spend money on farm
aid to increase the loyalty so that you can enlist. The only reason
you should ever pass is if you have no money and there is snowfall
so you can't attack.
Special events
Before your turn if a special event happens, it will appear in the
bald guy window and a message about the event will appear in the
dialogue box. These can be good or bad and will affect your
territorial stats or military. Here is a list of a few of them.
1. Snowfall is so severe that you can't go into battle or
move anything out of the
region.
2. A signal flare is sent up from a region, meaning that it
will be attacked at the
end of your turn.
3. Your Dad comes to town to mooch off of you. He eats
a lot of rice.
4. There's a festival, your culture increases.
5. There's a huge storm, you can't go into battle or move
anything.
6. An emissary from Kyoto comes along to tell you that
the Emperor is in your corner, and gives you some
presents
7. A messenger from your friends comes along with some
presents.
8. A ninja posing as a messenger from your friends comes
along to try to kill some of your troops.
9. A princess is born, loyalty increases.
10. Your heir is born, loyalty increases.
11. Riots, loyalty decreases.
12. An epidemic starts.
13. Lightning strikes the castle, culture decreases.
14. You die, your heir takes over, loyalty probably
decreases.
Taxes
Every October, you will collect taxes from your capital and no
more than three occupied regions. You can collect anywhere from
zero to 100 percent. The more you tax, the less loyal the people
will be. Yield and Wealth will also take a hit.
Battles
Battles occur when you attack other territories or when other
warlords attack your territories. There are two battle stages, the
field battle, and the castle battle. To advance to the castle battle
the attacking army must first win the field battle. To capture the
territory, the attacking army must win the castle battle. Battles
give your army experience. If you accumulate enough experience,
your rank will rise.
You will be given the option to have a manual battle or an
automatic battle. Automatic battles put your troops up against the
opponent's, rolls some dice, and kills lots of troops on both sides.
It's generally not a good idea to choose automatic battle because
you will lose way too many troops unless you severely outnumber
your opponent and don't want to waste time in a manual battle.
Before a manual battle starts, you will be asked to divide your
troops into units that you can control directly and exert your battle
strategy. There are six types of troops. You can only have a
maximum of 255 of any one kind of troop.
Headquarters are the general's guard. They have the best
defending power. If your lose your headquarters or kill all of the
opponent's then the battle will come to an abrupt end. If a
defender has no headquarters then he will lose the battle without a
fight. You can't attack without headquarters. Headquarters can
move six steps and can attack only adjacent units. They can't be
divided into more than one unit.
Cavalry are warriors on horseback. They have the best attacking
power and can move 9 steps.
Riflemen have guns. They can attack from a safe distance of 7
steps, but only if the enemy is directly in the same north-south or
east-west line. They are terrible when being attacked or when
attacking adjacent units, so use them from a distance. They can
only move 5 steps.
Archers are like riflemen, but they have slightly less attack power.
They can attack from a distance of 5 steps. They are terrible when
they are attacked or when attacking adjacent units.
Lancers are only a small upgrade on infantry and have medium
attack and defense. They can only attack adjacent units and they
can move 6 steps.
Infantry are basically guys with sticks. They pretty much suck at
everything and should only be used to attack as a last resort. Their
defense is only slightly better than Riflemen and Archers. They
can only attack adjacent units and they can move 6 steps.
Terrain
In manual battles there are different types of terrain. These
generally restrict movement and range attacks.
Grass/Dirt/Bridges – no restrictions.
Forests/Rocks - If your unit has a forest in front of him, he can't be
shot at from beyond the forest, nor can he shoot through the forest.
Counts as 2 steps.
Water – counts as 2 steps.
Walls – The castle walls or wooden barricades allow riflemen or
archers to shoot at the enemy from behind them, but prevent the
enemy from shooting back. Additionally, units can't walk on wall
spaces.
Deep water – you can't walk on deep water.
Regions
There are 21 regions in the game. To win, you must capture all of
them. At the beginning, you control Shinano and Kai. If you want
to know more about each warlord, take a history class or search the
internet. All of the warlords are actual historical figures. For some
reason the game developers ran out of warlords so they gave some
territory to fictional characters, a sect of Buddhist monks, (who
probably wouldn't be interested in territorial expansion), and a
Chinese general. They called him General Li. Reminds me of a
certain orange car.
Strategy
The general strategy is to build up an army and attack. DUH! But
in this section, I will tell you how to exploit the game's quirks to
get the best advantage. This is only a suggested strategy, and there
are many different approaches to the same end. I encourage you to
figure out how to win by yourself, but if you can't, then please
read on…
Creating a Market
If a region has a high yield, wealth, and culture, merchants will pay
more for rice in that region. They will also sell you things at a
higher price. An easy way to exploit this is to choose one territory
for buying and do all your selling in the capital. Keep the capital
at maximum wealth and yield. Selling rice to the merchant for $5
is sometimes possible if you do this. In the buying territory, keep
wealth, culture, and yield at the lowest level possible. (tax 100
percent at tax time until it is at zero, enlist every turn, never give
any farm aid or development) Early in the game, you might be
able to buy rice at $1. If you ever see the merchant selling it to
you for so cheap, pounce on it. Later in the game, he won't go that
low.
Exploiting the ranking system
One thing that sucks about this game is that the ranking of your
army depends on which province they operate out of. For
example, if in battle, the rank of your army rises, and you take over
a new territory, the rank of the army in the previous territory will
remain the same, while the one in the new territory will be the
higher one. This sucks because the army in Kai has a rank of 1.
The game is extremely difficult in the beginning because all of the
surrounding warlords outrank you. Rank does affect how well
your troops do in battle. Nothing infuriates me more than having
100 riflemen shoot something and because of the rank difference,
the opponent loses only 1 troop. To exploit this, in the beginning
of the game, it might be beneficial to allow an enemy to take your
territory. His forces will be divided and you can probably easily
re-capture it. Keep doing this a lot and the rank of your army will
rise rapidly. It's also a good idea to only attack with your strongest
army if you can help it.
Exploting the tax system
ALWAYS charge 100% tax. The people will be pissed off, but
you'll get lots of money and rice. Give $1000 back as farm aid
and they'll love you just as if you hadn't taxed them in the first
place. You keep the rice and any cash above $1000.
Battle Strategy
Headquarters are pretty expensive, so don't buy any. You
only need 1 HDQ to go into battle, just keep it in a safe place. The
first unit you should stock up on is riflemen and protect them at all
costs. When fighting against enemies that outrank you, it's a good
idea to have all your riflemen in one unit, but if you outrank them,
two units of riflemen are good. Never allow an enemy to get near
your riflemen. When advancing, place infantry or lancers in front
of your riflemen to act as human shields. It sure sucks to be them,
but you can always recruit more.
When an enemy outranks you, you can minimize losses by
dividing your infantry and lancers into shield units. Let's say you
have 50 lancers and 50 infantry. Divide your lancers into units of
1 and 49, and your infantry into units of 1, 1, and 48. If you have
one infantry soldier standing in front of 255 riflemen, the enemy
can't shoot through the infantry guy. Yea, he will die, but you may
have saved 60 riflemen at the cost of 1 soldier. Next turn, your
guys will get to fire back with a vengeance.
When advancing on castles, try to stay out of range of the
riflemen and archers inside. To get close to the door, have your
troops walk single file so that bullets and arrows can only hit the
guy in front. Sucks to be him…
Play defensively and allow the enemy to come to you. This
doesn't work when you are attacking castles, but it does work
everywhere else. Advance slowly and avoid close combat if
possible. You can wipe out everyone with your riflemen and mop
up with the cavalry.
If an enemy attacks you, don't try to win the field battle.
Get a few shots in with your riflemen and flee to the safety of your
castle before he even gets a chance to attack you. This is a good
strategy everywhere except Kai. Kai's castle is tiny and
surrounded by forests. Close combat is unavoidable even for the
defender.
When defending castles, never leave the castle! Use your
riflemen and archers every chance you get! Plug the doors with
shield units to halt any advancement. You can shoot through your
own units, so having three shields at the door with a zillion
riflemen behind them is a good way to eliminate anyone. If by
chance they do break through, have your cavalry attack the
offending unit and plug the hole again. Save the expensive
riflemen at all costs.
Conclusion
I was going to write a step by step walkthrough for this game, but I
think I gave you enough information to figure out how to win. The
game is hard in the beginning and pretty easy near the end. Happy
conquering!
