Dark Side's Economy Guide for Shogun 2

[Dark Side]

Introduction


This is an Economy Guide for Shogun 2. The purpose of this guide is to explain how the system works.


The Guide is split into three sections:


The first section covers the Basics of the economy system. This section is enough for the casual gamer who doesn't want to get too much into micromanaging the economy.


The second section covers the components of the economy system in details. This will include more number crunching and micromanagement.


The third section covers Tips and Strategies. This reflect my own gameplay and not the game's mechanics. These strategies are not optimal but are based on my personal experience and tastes. This section explores some parts not directly related to economy.


This is a continuous project and I will be updating and correcting the content once I notice anything. Please let me know if you have any corrections, advice or requests.



Note: This version of the guide is consistent with Shogun 2 version 1.0

[Dark Side]

Index


-Introduction


-Index


-Basics

---Income and Growth
---Treasury, Revenue and Food Supply
---Region Tool-tip and Summary
---Finance Summary


-In Depth - Part 1

---Taxation
---Farming and Food
---Wealth and Wealth Growth


-In Depth - Part 2

---Trade Resources and Trade Nodes
---Trade and Ports
---Way of Chi
---Capturing Provinces
---Raiding


-Strategies and Tips - Part 1

---Economy First, Expansion Second
---Bankruptcy and Starvation
---Farming
---Trade Resources and Nodes


-Strategies and Tips - Part 2

---Keep the Population happy
---Occupy, Loot or Liberate?
---Bushido or Way of Chi?
---Ashigaru or Samurai?
---Bow Ashigaru or Bow Samurai?
---Buddhism or Christianity?
---Agents


-Notes

---General Notes
---Version 0.1 Notes

[Dark Side]

Basics


Income and Growth


This system was introduced in Empire, refined in Napoleon and polished in Shogun 2. If you have played Empire or Napoleon there has been few changes and most are related to making things clearer.


Your Income is split into three categories: Taxes, Trade and Others.


Your main income for most the game and especially the early years comes from Taxing your population and industries. Each region has a "Wealth" Value and you get a cut of that Wealth every turn.


Trade is very simply your income from trading with other clans. Having a trade resource in a region is a double blessing, first you benefit from taxing the resource-creating building (mill, mine, horses) and then you benefit from the trade income from selling those resources.


Others include the Daimyo's purse, part of your vassals income, agreements with other clans (tributes to or from them), raiding income (parking fleets and armies on trade routes) and looting.


Economic/Town Growth is the growth of the wealth in your regions. Think of it as return of investment in real life. You invest your capital into a project and after some time you get some profits that you put again into the project making it (and return of profit) higher in the next cycle.




Treasury, Revenue and Food Supply





In the lower right corner of the screen you'll see a small tool-tip. This tool-tip shows you three main values.

The first value is your current treasury. This is how much you can spend this turn. This value cannot be increased during the current turn unless you accomplish a goal that awards money or getting an agreement with a clan to pay you a tribute. If this turns into a negative quality then you will enter bankruptcy. Bankruptcy affects your diplomatic standing and will inflict a heavy penalty on all of your regions' wealth growth.


The second value indicates how much money will enter your treasury next turn. This value is rarely accurate because it doesn't account for the upkeep of units in training or the increased income from newly built or upgraded structures. But it gives a very good estimate on how much to expect. This value will turn negative if your upkeep costs exceeds your income.


The third value indicates your global food surplus. All farms give a base of one food unit. Each farm upgrade will add an additional point. Some Chi arts give additional food units. Castles and Markets (and their upgrades) consumes food units. The difference between your food supply and food consumption will determine the food surplus. Having a negative surplus will cause starvation and revolts. Having neutral and positive surplus will have no effects.




Region Tool-tip and Summary






The Region Tool-tip is your way of knowing how things are going at a glance. The text shows the name of the region. The arrow indicates whether your region's wealth is increasing or decreasing (in this image it is decreasing).


The Number indicates the region's taxable current wealth (1500). The Wheel indicates the religion in the region (in this case it is Shinto, would be a cross if the region is Christian). The last icon is the population's happiness (Green means happy, red means angry, yellow means neutral).





When you double click on a region's capital you get the region's summary. The summary is split into 6 parts:


Summary: This covers the region's specialty (if any). Each specialty comes with a specific type town that can be developed to add a benefit to the region. Additionally it shows the religious composition of your clan and the conversion rate (if more than one religion exists).


Food: This covers the Region's local food production and consumption. The last box shows the region's contribution to the global food surplus pool.


Public Order: The number shows how happy or angry your population is. Hover your mouse pointer over each icon to show what are the affecting factors and the numerical modifier for each.


Wealth: The breakup of the region's wealth and where each part is coming from (In this case from Farming and Town Growth). Additionally is shows the total Province Wealth (1500), the Tax Rate for this region (30%), and the total income from this region (1500 x 0.3 = 450)


Town Growth: This indicates how much your region's wealth will be modified on the next turn. In this case the region will lose one wealth on the next turn (1500 – 1 = 1499).


Tax Exemption: This tick box allows you to exempt the region from taxes. This will remove the Public Order penalty resulting from taxation but the region will not contribute to the treasury as long as this box is ticked. The icon in the corner will open the finance window.




Finance Summary


The Finance Summary can be reached from the Finance interface The Finance interface can be reached from a region's summary interface or from the icons in the lower right corner of the screen. The Summary will be on the last tab.






The Finance summary is just that It gives a break up of all economic factors affecting your global economy on the current and previous turn. If you find your treasury or revenue in the red, come and check what is going on here.

[Dark Side]

In Depth - Part 1

Taxation


You gotta hate paying taxes, but enough with the politics


The bulk of your income will be from taxation. Taxation also affects your population happiness and wealth growth.


Let's start with the tax modifier. This is a global modifier that affects all of your regions. You cannot set a different taxation levels for each region. You can also turn on auto tax management.


There are 6 taxation levels: Exemption (region specific, enabled/disabled from the region's summary window), Minimal, Low, Normal, High and Very High.






Minimal tax level will put your base tax percentage at 10%. It incurs the least amount of unrest and lowest growth penalty .


Low tax level will put your base tax percentage at 20%. It incurs a slightly higher amount of unrest and growth penalty.





Normal tax level will put your base tax percentage at 30%. It incurs an average amount of unrest and growth penalty.


High tax level will put your base tax percentage at 40%. It incurs a big unrest and growth penalty.






Very High tax level will put your base tax percentage at 50%. It incurs a huge unrest and growth penalty.


As can be seen in the screen shots, the unrest is too huge on High and Very High which will result in revolts in most case. Don't use these levels unless in emergencies when you really need the extra income.


This is a global modifier that affects your entire clan. But your regions will have modifiers that will affect this global modifer.





Here I have four shots from different saves and regions. The tax rate is the global modifier already discussed.


Arts modifiers come from the mastery of arts. Some of the Chi arts adds a +% modifier and these will affect all of your regions (global) or a certain structure that might be present in some of your regions (local).


Buildings modifier comes from commercial buildings in your region like ports and markets.


Character effects are either positive or negative modifiers from family members or generals residing in the capital of the region.


Administration cost is a penalty to taxation that increases the more regions your control and the higher your tax rate. This is CA's way of implementing corruption, bureaucratic overheads of collecting taxes in a big empire, etc.


The total is the sum of the previous modifiers. This is then multiplied into the region's income and that will be your tax revenu from the region.




Farming and Food


As discussed before, each farm and each farming level will contribute a single food unit for the global food pool. Food surplus will result in increased happiness in all of your regions (1:1 ratio, each 1 point of additional food supply will result in 1 additional happiness point).


Farming revenue on the other hand is not that static. Now each farming level/tier will result in more revenue from that farm, but not all farms are equal.


Each farm has a certain yield/production that can be seen when you hover your mouse over the farm.






The above is screenshots from 5 different farms at the same tier (Land Consolidation) but at different yield/production values. Barren Soil will produce the least amount of revenue while Very Fertile Soil will produce the most. The difference between the two is 300%. But as can be seen, the food from each is the same (+4).




Wealth and Wealth Growth


You benefit from a region's income immediately while growth is incremental increase that you won't feel in a few turns. It will take at least a decade to see a huge boost in your income due to growth but this is not a bad thing. The game is designed in such a way that you have to balance between your economic growth and military expansion.


Growth comes from buildings (+X per turn to Growth), mastery of arts (+X or +% per turn) and triggers in the game when you accomplish a goal or reach a milestone. Growth is penalized by your tax level. When a region is exempted from taxation, you are not penalized. Then depending on your tax level this penalty increases. This penalty is minor for the fist two taxation levels, moderate for the third taxation level and crippling on the last two taxation levels. No matter what you do, you don't want to stay on the highest two taxation levels for long or your regions' wealth will melt away in a few turns.


The earlier you start taking care of wealth growth, the bigger the benefits you will reap in mid and late parts of the game. If you don’t take care of it early on, it will be too late to invest into it by mid-game, and at that point your expansion will slow down to a crawl. Don't worry about the small numbers you'll see in the first few years, this will grow much bigger when you start mastering Chi arts and building high-tier buildings






Example A shows a negative town growth (-1) which will reduce the Town Wealth (600) by a point on the next turn. This is because the penalties (Taxation Level) exceeds the growth (Buildings in the region like ports and markets). Farming contributes 900 to wealth.


Example B shows a negative town growth too. Here although the tax level is not too high, there is a special event (in this case bankruptcy on a previous turn) that is causing a huge penalty to growth.


Example C shows how much the Very High taxation level affects the region's entire growth.


Example D shows an extreme source of income from Mining (Gold Mine developed to the maximum tier).

[Dark Side]

In Depth - Part 2

Trade Resources and Trade Nodes






There are a total of eight trade resources in the game. Those are in order of the picture above:


Crafts, Silk, Horses, Incense, Cotton, Stone, Iron and Wood.


Crafts, Horses, Stone, Iron and Wood can be obtained by controlling a region that has these resources and then developing the structures that produces them.


Silk, Incense and Cotton can be obtained by controlling Trade Nodes.


Under each resource you see a number. This reflects the current market rate for a single unit of this item. This value will increase and decrease based on the supply-demand principle. Your trade income will be equal the quantity you are exporting/importing of each and multiplying it with the item's value.


You need access to these resources to build some high-tier buildings (for example you need stone to build the highest level castle) and you need them to increase your trade-based income.


Additionally, you need horses to access Samurai Calvary (Bow, Katana, Yari and Guards). Wood would decrease the cost of building ships in the region that has that resource. Stone would decrease the cost of building structures in the region that has that resource. Iron will allow building advanced smith/armory buildings.






Trade nodes are CA's way of representing trading with distant nations. Each node specialize in a single commodity that can be obtained by putting trade ships on top of it.

The more trade ships you put on a trade node, the higher the quantity of the commodity you will obtain. But adding ships have a diminishing rate. The first trade ship will give 8 units, the second ship will less, the third even less, etc. In the picture I have 3 ships that gives me 21 boxes of Incense that I can trade with other nations. You can see the amount you are obtaining by hovering the mouse pointer over your ships.


You have to protect your trade ships from pirates and hostile clans (trade ships have very limited combat abilities). And remember that you are paying for upkeep of these ships, so make sure that you are not paying for upkeep more than the price of the commodities you are obtaining. In the picture, I have 3 trade ships and 1 battle ship protecting them.






Hovering the mouse pointer over the naval lane (dotted yellow line) will pop up a box showing the total value of the obtained commodity at the current market value (quantity x price).




Trade and Ports


You get a trade agreement with other clans through the diplomacy interface. There are two ways to trade with a clan:


Terrestrial trade with clans that have a direct road to your capital (only possible with clans on the same island and sharing at least a single border region with you.


Naval trade with clans that have commercial ports and have spare capacity (if you have spare capacity yourself).


Most of your trade will be based on naval shipping so you need to keep increasing your naval trade capacity. This can be done in two ways: Expanding Coastal Villages into Trade Ports (+1) and Nanban Trade Ports (+2), or occupying a region with such ports.

Trade is split into imports (things that you don't produce but your trade partner does), exports (things that you produce but your trade partner doesn't), tariffs and Long Term Partnerships. This last value will increase each turn that you have an agreement running. If the agreement is broken for any reason this value will be reset to zero if you ever sign a new agreement with the same clan.






Above are two screenshots from two save files.

The first shot shows that I am producing/obtaining Crafts, Silk, Horses and Incense, while showing that I don't have access to Cotton, Stone, Iron or Wood. It also shows that I am dealing with both Matsuda and Sakai over naval trade (small ship icon next to the Clans' Con).


It also show that I am exporting to the several products. The last item in the exports box is the Long Term Partnership bonus which increases per turn as long as the trade agreement is running. The Value shows the difference of value between imports and exports.


And as you can see, I am exporting the same items to both clans, but I am making much more money out of Sakai. That is because in my game Sakai is a major power (over 8 regions) while Matsuda is only a 2 region Vassal of mine. So make sure to get big trade partners and no matter what try to conserve the relation (marriage, hostages, etc)

The second shot shows that I am dealing with the Sagara over terrestrial trade routes (carrage icon next to the Clan's Con).




Way of Chi






The right-hand side of the Chi tree (highlighted in the green box) offers several economic benefits ranging from advanced agriculture techniques, advanced mercantile techniques, taxation refroms, etc. This helps maximizing the amount of money that you can make out of your regions and trade.




Capturing Provinces


When you capture a region, you get two or three options:


Peaceful Occupation, Looting or Liberation/Vassalage





Peaceful Occupation results in minor damage to buildings within the castle and will result in the least amount of resistance to occupation. However this will not add any immediate money to your treasury.

Looting will severely damage all buildings in the castle, incur a huge resistance to occupation and will decrease your Daimyo's honor. However this will increase a big sum of money to your treasury.

Liberation/Vassalage is an option when you occupy a clan's historical capital region. If you do that you will get a Vassal clan that has a good diplomatic standing with you, a free unit, and a percentage of their income per turn.




Raiding


Coming Soon

[Dark Side]

Strategies and Tips - Part 1


Economy First, Expansion Second


The game series is called Total War, so it is a no brainer when saying that wars and battles are the core of the game. However, a good economy means that you will be able to recruit more and better armies.


My strategy revolves about developing my regions first and then expanding. I do that in bursts. In the first few turns (Turn 0 to 10) I try to occupy 2 to 4 regions from my immediate neighbors and making sure that I am eliminating them as not to have the harassing me while I am building my core empire up.


All regions get farm/road/castle upgrade. Then using those few regions that I have I start specializing each region to do a specific task for the next 20 or so turns. First I specialize at least two regions for economy preferably the regions with ports and access to resources. Those regions will get the most amount of investment and protection. Try to get one with a Nanban Trade Post as that will boost your naval trade (make sure to build a monastery and recruit a monk in that region if you want to stick to Buddhism)


Then I develop regions for producing Cavalry, Archery, Sword, Spear and Ninja. Since you can't do all of that with just 3 to 6 regions, you'll need to select which military tradition you want to concentrate on and then build their related buildings first.


During this period try to occupy at least a couple of trade nodes. This is easier for the clans on the western and northern parts of Japan as they are the closest to the nodes and can protect the easily. Also start the exploration of Japan using your fleets and agents so that you can add clans to your diplomacy contacts in hopes of adding trade partners.


Once I am ready and I have two decent stacks I start my next burst and take the next 5~6 regions and repeat the same cycle all over again. But each time your waiting time will be shorter as the regions will be mostly developed.

These bursts also helps keeping the expansion diplomatic penalty under control, and repressing the newly captured regions will be easier if you know you only have to deal with a few new regions each time.




Bankruptcy and Starvation


NEVER EVER get bankrupt. NEVER EVER. This is not shooting yourself in the foot, this is shooting yourself in the head. Bankruptcy will incur a huge penalty to your Wealth Growth across all of your regions and will last for several turns even when you are out of bankruptcy.


On the other hand, NEVER EVER get your population starving (negative food supply). This is the best way next to putting your taxes on Very High to cause most of your regions to rebel.




Farming


Always keep your food surplus positive. Make sure that you don't build any castles/markets before making sure that you have enough food to offset the consumption.


And remember that not all farms are equal. A Very Fertile farm will give you 300% the income of a Barren farm. Upgrade the fertile farms first and the barren farms last.


The last farm upgrade (Land Consolidation) offers the least increase in wealth compared to the previous upgrades. Do this when you need food or when you have excess cash. The return on your investment will take too long before you make up for your capital.


Food surplus is the easiest way to control your population. Each point of surplus food will increase happiness by one point in each single region that you control. In my Shimazu campaign by the time I controlled Kyoto and 25 regions I had a surplus of 12 which made newly conquered regions happy even if I don't leave any garrison in them.




Trade Resources and Nodes


Make sure that you rush to the trade nodes. Once another clan occupies a node you can't kick them out without declaring war on them and then defeating their fleet.


Also make sure to protect your trade fleets from pirates and hostile clans.


Region specializations are rare. Very few regions in the game have iron (needed for smithing), wood (cheap ships), stone (enables last tier-castles), horses (needed for Samurai and Guard cavalry), mills (increases accuracy for archers recruited in the region), holy sites (increases morale for units recruited in the region), smiths (increases armor/attack of units recruited in the region), gold (huge income boost), philosophy (increases mastery of arts rate), etc...


Make those regions your priority targets and you won't regret it. Also make sure to build the appropriate military buildings in each of those regions to increase the benefit. For example, in a region that has a paper mill, build a paper mill (+accuracy to archers), advanced archery range (+experience to archers) and archery encampment (+accuracy). This will give you superior archers at the same cost of archers in other regions. Imagine a Hero Archer unit recruited in such a region, it will be a machine gun)

[Dark Side]

Strategies and Tips - Part 2


Keep the Population happy


This is your main priority in newly conquered regions and in regions that don't have nearby armies to repel rebels. Watch your tax rate, never increase it to High or Very High as the long-term downside exceeds any temporary benefits. Exempt regions that are especially troublesome from taxation.


You can repress the population by putting a Metsuke in the capital or putting armies. Metsukes can be trained to increase their repression rates in capitals. Putting armies in the capital is an expensive way of keeping the population under control.


Your Daimyo's honor also affects your population's happiness, so that is worth considering when taking decisions.




Occupy, Loot or Liberate?


Early on, liberate a clan or two on the front that you don't want to open a war front at. They will protect you and you don't have to pay for keeping troops. You also get reliable trade partners if somewhat small.


Don't liberate in the late part of the game as Vassals might turn on you due to the Realm Divide diplomacy penalty.


Never loot unless under extreme circumstances (I never do it myself). The only reason to do it is if the AI left a big city undefended and you want to scorch it tio the ground while making a buck. Don't loot a region that you intend to keep.




Bushido or Way of Chi?


Balance is key. I usually rush the agriculture reforms so that I can upgrade my farms. This is crucial for my overall strategy (population control). Bushido is important because you want your armies to compete with those of the AI.


This brings us to Philosophy specialization regions. Those are worth 5 other regions. The speciality building can increase your mastery rate by up to 30%. So if you control two or three of those you will be ahead of everyone else in the game.




Ashigaru or Samurai?


Again, balance is a key. Ashigaru are cheap, but Samurai are the professional troops. You can opt for balanced armies (both Ashigaru and Samurai) that will have an average price but flexible for most situations. Or you can have different army compositions.


In my first play thru as the Shimazu I had 3 army compositions: Professional Army of all Samurai/Monks for assaulting castles, Composite Army for facing enemies on the field, and Ashigaru Army for protecting the border of my empire.


You cannot win with using one sort as the price or the performance will cripple you. Balance the armies for best results.


Spying ahead of your armies using your agents can help you plan with sending the right army against the right opponent. Sometimes an imposing force can turn out to be 20 Ashigaru units while a half stack might turn out to be Samurai and Monks supported by a hero.




Bow Ashigaru or Bow Samurai?


There seems to be a bit of confusion about Bow Ashigaru. Bow Ashigaru are more numerous than Bow Samurai, but they are not damage dealers. Their arrows have low damage and very low armor penetration, and they have very low accuracy and reloading speeds. Bow Samurai units on the other hand are high damage, good against armor, have good accuracy and reloading speeds. Monks are even better than Samurai.


So don't waste your Bow Ashigaru arrows against armored units, only target unarmored units (Ashigaru, No Dachi, Monks, Light cavalry, etc). And remember that they can't enter a melee of any sort.


On the other hand, Bow Samurai are effective against armored units, so target Samurai units and generals for maximum effect. They can also hold the line against Ashigaru or Spear units in a melee, but don't keep them unsupported for long.


Monks are better than Samurai at ranged combat, but they are worst at melee, so use them properlly and they will be a huge asset in any team.


However I have noticed that using a couple of Samurai archers shooting fire arrows at a general unit can cause the sudden death of the general, so use it in this case to remove the general's morale boost from the equation.


Archer Monks have better accuracy and damage than Samurai archers, but they lose the melee fighting abilites due to lack of armor. Having a couple of them in a full stack to target especially nasty enemy units makes their costs well worth it, but a waste against Ashigaru and regular Samurai units.


So, Ashigaru vs Ashigaru, Samurai vs Samurai and Monks vs Special units. See what's your enemy's army composition is like and plan accordingly.




Buddhism or Christianity?


Coming Soon




Agents


These are your true worriers. Turning the tide of battle before it begins is the fastest way to victory. Disabling an army, eliminating a general, crippling the economy, all of it can be done if you have enough agents and you upgrade them correctly.


Let's start with the Ninja. Those are your assassins and saboteurs. Start each Ninja by sabotaging an AI's building (hostile, ally or neutral AI, it doesn't matter as long as the agent succeeds) . Once the Ninja is promoted, put two points into Sabotage. Keep sabotaging until the next promotion and then specialize the Ninja as either a Saboteur or as an Assassin. Use sabotage to upgrade your assassin until he is a 6-stared Ninja.


Use monks to boost the morale of your armies (critical in Ashigaru-heavy armies) and to combat the spread of Christianity.


Use Metsuke to fight off enemy agents and to repress your population.

[Dark Side]

Reserved for future editing.

[Dark Side]

Reserved for future editing.

[Dark Side]

Notes


General Notes


All rights belong to CA and Sega as per the forum's Terms and Conditions. You are not allowed to use this content for commercial purposes.


Feel free to use the contents of this guide (in part or in whole) without contacting me, but please refer to this thread's URL.


This guide is an ongoing project. I have the intention of updating it with new sections and updating any changes for each patch. If you have any comments, corrections, advice, requests or anything on your mind please share them here in this thread.


I will not reply to Private Messages as the idea of this guide is to share any information with the community.


Last but not least, I would like to thank CA for giving us once again a great game.




Version 0.1 Notes


This version is based on a single play-through as the Shimazu Clan on Normal Campaign Difficulty and Easy Battle Difficulty.


There are many elements missing from this guide and will be added periodically


This version will not cover Multiplayer nor the Avatar campaign


I will create a PDF printing-friendly version of this guide once everything is corrected.