Shingen the Ruler LRB Exploit Guide (LEG) Version 2.00 January 06, 2020 Written by ireant =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ *TOC TABLE OF CONTENTS: --------------------------------- SECTION ONE: Document Preliminaries LEG100 Author’s comments LEG101 Changes LEG105 Copyright notice LEG107 Contact information LEG110 Star-Search - How to jump to references LEG170 LRB Exploit Overview SECTION TWO: Pragmatists' guide to LRB Exploit LEG200 What is your objective? LEG201 Wealth LEG202 Unit Spoils LEG203 Conquest: LRB Exploit for gaining territories LEG205 Outline for field battle LRB Exploit LEG207 LRB Exploiting eastern game map territories LEG230 The Short version of turn 6 AI retreat LEG232 Dummy units LEG234 Misleading the enemy range units LEG236 Enemy CAV movement LEG237 Moving your HDQ to influence AI CAV movement LEG240 Troops needed for turn 6 AI retreat LEG244 Practical limit on Army Power needs LEG245 Splitting up large AI armies for LRB Exploit LEG250 Player preparation for turn 6 AI retreat LEG260 Limiting experience point gain LEG265 Preserving the rank zero status LEG270 Castle exploit procedures LEG273 Castle Sagami LEG275 Castle Kozuke LEG276 Castle Echigo LEG279 Castle Suruga LEG281 Castle Mikawa SECTION FOUR: A MORE DETAILED LOOK AT LRB EXPLOIT LEG400 Relocating a zero rank territory LEG404 Eliminating AI lords for LRB Exploit LEG408 Using your rank zero territory for combat LEG420 Anticipating AI range unit packs LEG424 Cavalry Elusion LEG430 Measuring Army Power (AP) with IRAP LEG432 Definition of the FIT based on IRAP LEG436 Value of the FITs I did discover: UET LEG438 LRB Exploits possible with game start armies LEG439 What to do to increase Army Power LEG45O Avoiding castle capture LEG452 Advice calculating the IRAP SECTION FIVE: Empire Planning and Strategies LEG500 Section introduction LEG510 Empire Objectives: LEG512 What territory will keep the zero rank? LEG513 Plan: Zero rank in HIDA LEG514 Plan: Zero rank in Kozuke LEG515 Plan: Zero rank in Shinano, using Etchu and Mino LEG516 PLAN: Zero rank in Shinano, center of empire LEG530 Starting a plan requires some resources LEG534 Attacking AI territories for rank =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ *LEG100 Author’s comments December 26, 2019 I finished version two of the LRB Exploit Guide. The draft guide I wrote summer of 2019 was version one. Version one was as much a research report as it was a guide. Version one was so far from the best way to play LRB Exploit games that I forced myself to write version two even though my research is still not done. What can I do? I know this guide is not complete, but version one misrepresents LRB Exploit tactics. It is an embarrassment and injustice to the topic. What I have learned since last summer demands to replace version one. I write the above so others will not view this document harshly. My experience has shown me that there is always more to learn. If I had to wait until I know everything there was to know about a subject, I could never write anything. Here is a comment about changes: I had to start this guide with numbering in the 100s because using the first hundred, 000-099, would have caused search errors. I noticed that the first four characters would be confusing, causing many to type ‘‘OH’’ instead of zero. LEG0 and LEGO are not distinctive. People might think of the plastic construction toy. Another quirk of this document is there is no section three, but there are sections four and five. Three is reserved for ideas that might coalesce later. *LEG101 Changes: With more playing time, I will have more to say. Just this month (December 2019), I discovered several AI behaviors that I had never realized before, although now, after the discoveries, they seem somewhat obvious. Furthermore, I haven’t yet played beyond the second year of the game using LRB Exploit. Most of my games have ended the first year to try different approaches. It is only now that I have achieved some contentment with my methods that I may press onward with the same game. There are two readers that have written me in the last year. What they have said has influenced my thinking. I thank them for their thoughts. January 6, 2020: Corrections to various errors. Rewriting small bits to improve clarity. Add precision to those descriptions that I have recently investigated. No version change since it has just been posted and unlikely that many have seen it. Essentially, who will know the difference? *LEG105 COPYRIGHT NOTICE Anthony Daniel Anderson wrote this Strategy Guide, LRB Exploit Guide, for Shingen the Ruler. I write my guides for my benefit and to share with others. I don't mind other people using the information I provide in other guides without credit to me. However, I would take exception at someone claiming my ideas were his own. Laugh; I have to add that I would be even more upset if someone thought to circumvent copyright by instead claiming to be me. My intention is to submit this guide to Gamefaqs, only. I will rely on their corporate muscle to discourage unauthorized duplication of my guides. *LEG107 Contact Information Please write me about reference number mistakes. Also, suggest phrases I should add to the glossary (the glossary is in the Territory Management guide). I am not concerned so much with typographical errors. It is errors that confuse the information I want to stamp out. Time will see typos corrected. I will reread my documents at some point. However, if you feel strongly that my writing needs improvement and you can tell me how, then go ahead and tell me. My email is ireant2@yahoo.com Please put SHINGEN at the start of the subject line in all capitals. This will help me distinguish your email from the SPAM that packs my inbox. I check my email about once a month. If I anticipate the possiblity of email, I will check it a little more often. I tell you this so that you don't get upset that I haven't responded. Give it time. *LEG110 Star-Search - the technique for navigating this document. Every topic is preceded by an asterisk (star) LEG (LRB Exploit Guide), a unique three-digit number, followed by a topic title with a possible brief description. The star in front of the LEG number is the key to searching. I will reference a topic throughout the guide by giving the LEG number, but when you search for it, preface the LEG number with a star (an asterisk). For example, this topic is LEG110. When bringing up the find feature (often CTRL-F in many programs), type: *LEG110 Nowhere else in the document is the LEG number preceeded by an asterisk (except here for the demonstration). If you search without the star, you may encounter all the times I am referencing the topic. Only by using the star will you limit your search to the topic itself. [If you are unfamiliar with the Find command, it generally searches forward from the cursor position. If the cursor is past the place in the document where the seek location resides, you have to search up, not down. Some programs, such as WordPad, require you to manually bring the cursor back to the top of the document and then search.] Furthermore, you can also return to the Table of Contents by using star TOC. Some of the references may at times refer to other Shingen the Ruler guides I have written. TM stands for the Territory Management guide. BUT stands for the Basic Unit Tactics guide. LEG is this guide, LRB Exploit Guide Consult the other guides to find given references. *LEG170 Overview: LEG - LRB Exploit Guide; LRB - Lower Rank Bonus Lower Rank Bonus is the reward given for winning or drawing a battle against a higher ranked AI (Artificial Intelligence) army. [Computer players are considered AI players; I call them AI or AI lords.] As long as at least one AI unit is killed, LRB spoils will be given if you stay in the battle without losing all HDQ or retreating (using the ‘‘Flee’’ option). Twenty turns is the maximum battle length. The massive amount of gold and product that can be gained when battling AI armies with higher ranks is the reason I wanted to form a playing style that uses it. I wanted procedures and tactics that would maximize the LRB profits. I didn’t just want to benefit from it; I wanted to exploit it. My intention is to make LRB spoils as THE income source to provide for my empire. The conventional means of generating resources can still be used, but I don’t focus on them. The time spent cultivating the conventional income sources will not make as much profit as gathering LRB spoils. Conventional income sources: 1) Gold Mines (TM420) 2) October Harvest Income (TM410) 3) Regular Combat Spoils (BUT072, TM440) 4) Buying and Selling PRD (TM430) When I wrote the Territory Management guide about a year and a half ago, I had scratched the surface of LRB Exploit. I wrote about what I saw at TM440 and TM441. There are a few points I was wrong and they need correction, but the gist is still true: a staggering amount of money can be made using LRB Exploit tactics. The game objective is to conquer all twenty-one territories of the game map. Increasing army rank is both a consequence of eliminating the AI occupying armies and a practical necessity: it is easier to vanquish foes as your army gains rank. However, rank gain will reduce and eventually cease LRB spoils. The bonus is only given for beating AI as the LOWER ranked army. Clearly, single-minded focus on the game objective is incompatible with my desire to exploit LRB spoils. My idea is to keep a territory at zero rank that can be used to spawn other territories at zero or near zero rank. These spawned territories can then attack AI neighbors and get maximum LRB spoils (because the amount of bonus spoils is proportional to the Relative Rank (RR) difference between my army and the AI army). Those territories can be surrendered back to the AI and recaptured to refresh the zero or near zero rank when needed to keep getting the highest LRB spoils. I use another territory to fight AI armies for the purpose of conquest and building rank. I have always played Shingen the Ruler with only one of my territories carrying the Takeda banner. I seldom attacked the AI armies with any but my highest ranked territory. I would plan my conquests to be done with my army carrying the rank from territory to territory. Conquest and building rank went hand in hand. If I lost a territory to AI attack, I would reclaim it with my flagship army. Thus, the idea of giving only one territory the task of holding rank is the same method I had been using. I realize that many of my ideas about LRB Exploit are overkill. The computer players do not have the intelligence to generate the kind of resources I can. Three to five years of building resources should be enough to build armies that the AI players could never defeat. My thoughts to create the optimum LRB Exploit take time to setup (LEG500). Yet, by the time my money machine is built, I have all the gold and product I need. Because of the time needed to create the optimum income generating position, I have had to find interim methods to generate income using LRB Exploit. Learning how to speed up the LRB Exploit playing style has given me a sense of diverse possibilities. I will explain the concepts simply, without all the research that went into forming my assertions. I will present detailed explanations in another section. Those wanting to understand the details will be directed where to find more information. Hence, the first part of this document is going to be for the pragmatists who just want to play the game using the methods of the LRB Exploit without the need for precise understanding. Another section will give strategies developed for an LRB Exploit empire. SECTION TWO: Pragmatists' guide to the LRB Exploit *LEG200 What is your objective? A) Wealth LEG201 B) Unit Spoils LEG202 C) Conquest LEG203 *LEG201 Wealth: LRB Exploit generates $21.1 and 15.2PRD per RR. Choosing opponents with the largest Relative Rank differential increases your profits. (BUT074) Resources from common LRB Exploits: The table below is a sample of the LRB Exploits available at the start of the game. All samples are taken from actual games with a rank zero exploiter. All are done with a non-capture exploit at both field and castle battles with one kill per battle. A non-capture exploit means you can do the same exploit over and over again. [Keep in mind that spoils are awarded based on RR, Relative Rank. If your army is above rank zero, the RR will be the AI’s rank minus your rank.] Rank Territory AI Lord Gold PRD ------------------------------------------ 07 North Shinano Murakami $296 213 12 Kozuke Uesugi $506 365 15 Suruga Imagawa $632 456 23 Sagami Hojo $968 700 28 Mikawa Matsudaira $1178 852 31 Echigo Uesugi $1304 943 ------------------------------------------ The amounts above are each from one raid (field and castle battle), in one month’s time. Positioning yourself so that you can exploit a high rank AI lord is well worth the effort. *LEG202 Unit Spoils: You will get 10% of one AI unit type from the field battle. If your exploit is also for conquest, you will also get 10% of one unit type when the AI abandons a castle. Because of the constant influx of troops, the need to recruit and upgrade is reduced. You can survive with the troops you get in battle. In contrast with the regular way of playing the game, making opponent armies smaller by killing them in battle, you are making opponent armies smaller by defectors joining your army. (BUT076) *LEG203 Conquest: LRB Exploit works for gaining territories. It takes a larger army than non-conquest LRB Exploit raids, sometimes requiring around 70% of the AI’s Army Power. Still, this is an easy way to take away territories from stronger opponents without even having to kill them. As long as the target AI has two or more territories, you can bluff an AI to abandon one of them. The two Takeda home territories are next to three AI lords that also have two territories. [Takeda is the family name of Shingen, your army.] Hojo: Sagami rank 23 and Musashi rank 10 Imagawa: Suruga rank 15 and Totoumi rank 9 Uesugi: Kozuke rank 12 and Echigo rank 31 You can also create AI lords with two territories by capturing a territory then giving one away. For instance, the army in Shinano can bluff out Kozuke/Uesugi. North Shinano/Murakami will capture Shinano if empty. Now, the former Shinano army that is in Kozuke can capture North Shinano without a fight. (There are still troops in North Shinano, it is just that now they will abandon the castle rather than fight.) You gain the gold and product in the North Shinano treasury but also the territory statistics of North Shinano are more useful than Shinano. Furthermore, if you leave 10HDQ behind in Kozuke, you can keep that territory, too. [Leaving 10HDQ behind is a common tactic I use to hold territories when I move off the army in them.] Capturing enemy castles is not actually because of the LRB Exploit, but because of the principle that allows LRB Exploit to be possible. That principle is the turn 6 AI retreat (LEG230, LEG240). *LEG205 Outline for field battle LRB Exploit 1. Pick a territory to target. Review what it will take to exploit it if you don’t know. (LEG207) 2. Determine whether you have enough troops to get the AI to retreat on turn 6 against your target territory. (LEG230, LEG240) 3. Use the going command to send troops to battle. Form your unit type divisions according to the needs of the map. (LEG207) 4. Assign CAV and/or dummy units to mislead the AI range units. (LEG234) 5. Maneuver your HDQ to control the approach of the enemy CAV. Move your full-sized divisions to a safe part of the map - stay out of notice of the AI range units and out of the lanes the AI CAV will be traveling. (LEG237) 6. Keep dummy units near your HDQ to slow the enemy CAV as needed. (LEG232) 7. Keep a size one RM division near your HDQ. Shoot the CAV once for the kill LRB spoils requires. After a kill has been accomplished, you may sacrifice the RM if you need an extra dummy unit to slow down the AI CAV. 8. On turn 6, hope the enemy runs away, but if you don’t reload, play as if the enemy will stay. (LEG250) *LEG207 LRB Exploiting the eastern game map territories I made a new discovery. It is another one I never noticed. I counted squares on the several maps as I played. It seems every map, field or castle, is 30 squares horizontal and 28 squares vertical. Kai is easy, but you will have to use an extra set of dummy units because the enemy CAV don’t have far to travel to your HDQ and the area is cramped. Plan for full dummy unit allotment: two divisions of size one INF, one LNC, one AR, one RM, and one CAV. Put your full CAV division in the eastern mountains to attract AI range units. Don’t get too close to the lake or the enemy RM might shoot you. Use HDQ movements to manage the CAV lanes so your other units are safe. (Review LEG236 and LEG237.) Shinano can be difficult to exploit because the map is hindered by forest. Although the same size as every map, it is hard to run here because the AI range units travel down the center of the map. Still, with practice, it is feasible to exploit. You may have to lose a dummy CAV unit pulling the range units west. The full sized CAV division will try to draw range units into the forest. You will need extra dummy units to slow the AI CAV. You will have to hide your other units in the southeast corner where your HDQ is hiding (which is all the more reason for having extra dummy units). Sagami is easy. Move your CAV into the mountains. Cavalry Elusion works here 93.75% of the time. Move your hiding units along the south to the southeast corner. The procedure is detailed for Sagami at LEG424. Musashi is impossible to LRB Exploit unless you eliminate all the CAV and RM from the territory before you try to exploit it. Otherwise, a true zero rank exploit is not possible. You will have to kill at least one division of CAV and a division each of RM and AR. You may have to kill all the range units. The best way to avoid backwash of experience point gain is to capture the territory so that the rank stays there. [Doing a perfect zero rank transfer to Musashi is burdensome.] Kozuke is easy. Move CAV2 dummy division into the mountains on the west. The AI range units will follow. Move HDQ two squares west and two Squares south. If the AI move is horizontal this turn, AI CAV2 will align with your HDQ west. So, half the time, this is all that is needed for Cavalry Elusion to work. On turn two, move your HDQ towards the southeast corner, but move north out of it if the AI CAV go all the way to the south before heading east (that will save you a dummy unit). The other half of the time, just use dummy units to slow the CAV. Hide other units in southwest corner. Echigo is difficult. My CAV have often run out of room misleading the AI range units. I plan to make a detailed guide when I can because this territory is important because it is rank 31. Cavalry Elusion is hard here, but doing it will give your other units a place to hide. Bring extra dummy units and you should be okay. North Shinano is moderately complex. I send my CAV into the western mountains to mislead the AI range units. The CAV1 also heads west then south, which will bring the other set of range units west, too. HDQ goes south, then east crossing the river, hitting the east wall and then one square south into the river. Wait for the enemy CAV to commit to the east, then finish crossing the river and then go west. There is a good chance that you won’t have to use any dummy units. West Shinano is easy. The enemy CAV cannot reach your HDQ in time. Split your CAV divisions, one going north then west across the river as the AI range units approach. The other can go east across the river in the south. Don’t stay long. All it has to do is lead a range division that direction. One turn of diversion is all it takes to delay them. The range units are too far away, so retreat. Your other units will be safe hiding out across the west most river in the south. Suruga (30,28); Easy Map is similar to Sagami but without the convenient mountains for the range unit lure. There will be three divisions of range units. It is hard to get them all to follow one CAV division. I use one CAV to pull them one way, and then back off so that they will turn towards my other CAV division. The AI CAV cannot catch your HDQ in time, but practicing Cavalry Elusion will help out your hiding units. I typically send my HDQ north and hide my units in the south center. When the AI CAV get close, then my HDQ goes south into the southwest corner. Totoumi is not difficult, but not easy. I haven’t done many exploits there because of the low rank. I leave this one for you to figure out. Mikawa is easy. However, when I first started exploiting it, I didn’t think so. I will have to adjust this description later, when I play it again to give exactly what I do that has come to work every time. I have not been in Mikawa recently, but here is what I remember: one of your CAV must get into the northwest mountain cluster carefully to avoid being shot. Your other entices the AI range units east, and then goes south, slowly, into the mountains. Your HDQ goes into the south mountains. If done right, then the AI CAV won’t catch you in time. The hardest thing to do is to shoot the AI CAV before they get into the mountains because staying out in the open may attract enemy range units.] Mino is easy. HDQ into eastern mountains after drawing the AI CAV south. CAV lose the ninth movement point each turn moving in forest. Instead of a three square per turn movement advantage on you, they only have one when moving through forest. They move four squares of forest per turn; your HDQ moves three. Use dummy units to slow them if you can’t figure out how to elude them outright. Send a CAV division into the mountains in the north, east of center. Put the other division in the central forest, west of the eastern forest. Your other units can choose where they want to hide; there are many options in the south. Etchu is tricky. You will have to use at least one dummy unit to slow down the AI CAV as your HDQ tries to hide in the mountains in the southwest center. If you dodge wrong or the AI range units weren’t properly diverted, you will have to use a second set of dummy units. The range units will be delayed by your CAV in the west mountains; bring them to it, then run away. The mountain cluster is too thin for prolonged hiding. Other units go to southeast corner. Left out is how to get the kill needed for LRB spoils. Also, I didn’t mention the castles. Most of them are easy enough, but some require special moves to get it right. See LEG270 for castles. *LEG230 The short version of turn 6 AI retreat (BUT417): Starting on turn 6 and every turn afterwards, the AI will measure your Army Power (AP) against its own AP. If your AP is at least 25% of the AI AP, there are some situations that AI may run away. Some field battles call for at least 46% of the AI’s AP for the AI to run away. Castle battles may require up to 70% of the AI AP to get the AI to flee. (Also review LEG244 Practical limit on Army Power needs.) [At times you will see me write IRAP, Index of Relative Army Power. For instance, I wrote above that ‘‘castle battles may require up to 70% of the AI AP….’’ I could also write castle battles require an IRAP of .70. (LEG430)] Caution: the turn 6 AI retreat does not always happen. Even when your army is big enough so that the AI wants to retreat, about 5%-10% of the time, the computer randomly denies the AI desire to leave and forces it to stay for at least another turn. On the seventh turn, the same thing may happen again (although the probability is so low as to be rare). Theoretically, the eighth turn and so on could defy the odds, as well. [Remember, AI with only one territory can’t run away from the castle battle. There is nowhere to go. In such cases, you can only get spoils by lasting until turn 20, so don’t engage until after turn 16.] Sometimes, when you have the advantage, the AI staying an extra turn helps you kill more AI troops. However, if doing the LRB Exploit, you are at a disadvantage. You want the AI to go. When it doesn’t, your army, if unprepared, might get clobbered by some of the greater ranked AI units. Most often it is your HDQ getting sacked by the AI CAV. The bulk of your units are hiding out during the LRB Exploit, so an extra turn should not trouble them. It is your HDQ that you need to protect. Putting dummy units next to the AI CAV on turn 6 will occupy the CAV, should the AI stay. These dummy units sacrifice their lives to keep the HDQ safe because CAV always forego seeking your HDQ if there is any of your other units next to them. (LEG232) One other exception is your CAV. The LRB Exploit requires your CAV to distract the enemy range units. If your CAV get boxed into a corner leading the AI range units away from your other units, they may get clobbered if the AI stays on turn 6 or more. If you make one division size one and give it the riskier assignment, then losing them won’t be painful. Furthermore, although I assign the task of misleading the AI range units to CAV because the CAV are so fast as to not be caught, it is possible to use a dummy INF or LNC unit to mislead the range units, never intending the dummy unit to survive the mission. All you need is to buy time by diverting the AI range units away from your HDQ or other units. (LEG234) *LEG232 Dummy Units BUT410 gives the full description of dummy units. However, in the LRB Exploit, dummy units are only used for three purposes: delay enemy movement, lure enemy out of position, and attack. A dummy unit is a size one division of the five non-HDQ unit types. Usually, when using a dummy division of a unit type, the other division of the same unit type will have all the remaining units. This would allow one dummy CAV, RM, AR, and LNC. INF can have two dummy divisions because INF are allowed three divisions. However, if six dummy units are insufficient, you have the option to only send two units of a unit type to battle (three for INF). You could thus increase your available dummy units. [This tactic will not be possible if your army is small. You need enough Army Power to compel the AI to leave battles on turn 6.] Dummy units are used for dangerous tasks that may get them killed. In fact, some of the tasks require them to die. Because they die, the full-sized divisions of unit types may survive the audacious LRB Exploit raids. In the LRB Exploit, dummy units are mainly used to delay the enemy CAV. By placing a dummy next to one AI CAV division, the next CAV turn will not be spent moving towards your HDQ, but remaining where it is while killing the dummy unit. The second use of dummy units is as a lure to the AI range units. The dummy unit will move so as to be the closest unit to one AI range unit or a group of two or three. The dummy unit will move from turn to turn away from the rest of the player army, but close enough to the AI range units for them to follow. Depending on the map circumstances, the dummy unit may use up all the available space, ending up at the edge of the map, with nowhere to go. It will then move as far away as possible from the rest of the army so that its death will maximize the distance one AI range unit is diverted as that AI unit shoots the dummy unit. The third use of dummy units is to kill enemy troops. Because attackers always kill one enemy unit rule (BUT402), dummy units are effective at making the one kill necessary to get LRB spoils. They are used to make the kill when it is not possible to do it and survive the attack. This is especially true for situations that call for a melee type attack. A dummy range unit may be able to get in an attack against the superior rank enemy and survive. *LEG234 Misleading the enemy range units First, if an enemy range unit can move in one turn to shoot any of multiple possible targets, it will always shoot your HDQ if it can. After that, it shoots your more valuable units. However, observing AI range units, a range unit seems to have a quirky 50% of the time that it does the opposite: it will prioritize your INF and LNC units to be shot first. Yet, the above doesn’t matter. The point of this topic is to avoid being shot, to never be in range of a range unit. In the LRB Exploit, the AI far outrank you: any shot could potentially wipe out a large division of your army. You need to know what a range unit will do when trying to get a shot: whom will it chase? Whom it shoots is something you don’t want to find out. Each range unit chases the closest player unit. The closest is defined not by how many squares away the target is, but how many squares away the range unit must move to get a shot. For instance, if the target were across a river, that river square would add three squares of distance for a melee unit attack. But, a range unit won’t count the river square as distance if the shot can be taken without crossing the river. All squares whether regular or slower movement terrain only count as distance if a range unit must traverse the squares to get a shot. A river square would then add 3 squares of distance. If the target is in the interior of a mountain or forest cluster, the AI range unit must move to be adjacent to shoot the target. Every intervening mountain or forest square will count as 3 or 2 squares of distance, respectively. An AI range unit can be manipulated into moving where you want on the map by presenting a target that is closer than any other unit. To accomplish this, you must not only move your bait close to the AI range unit, but also maintain the distance of your other units. The greater the distance of your other units, the less risk your bait must take. You want to move it close to the range unit, but not so close as to be caught and shot. [The exception is if you were using a dummy unit as bait. It can be shot, but only after several turns of luring the AI range unit out of position. Your bait dummy unit’s mission must be accomplished before it is lost.] I typically use CAV as bait because their speed allows them to get closer to AI range units without being caught. If there is need to lead the AI units into a position my CAV cannot escape, I make sure that CAV division is a size one dummy. (LEG232 Dummy units) Misleading an AI range unit is simple. The problem compounds when two must be handled. Even so, two are not so bad, but many situations have three AI range units traveling in a pack. The problem with a pack of three AI range units is they are all in different positions. If care is not taken, one division may be closer to your other units. Your bait cannot approach closer to this straying range unit because there is not enough distance between the bait and the other two AI range units: getting closer puts the bait in their attack range. Furthermore, even if all three maintain the pursuit of the bait, the range of fire they represent might eventually corner your bait into a position it cannot move fast enough to escape. If the AI range unit closest to the bait shoots the bait in the corner, the other range units will start moving towards your army. The best solution I have found to handle a pack of three AI range units is to have another bait unit intervene at some point. For instance, at Suruga field, I have two CAV divisions running bait lures. I move one into bait position in the north, while the other one travels east. When the AI begin chasing my north most CAV division, I will rush it out of lure range while bringing my eastern one into the closest unit lure position. This pulls the range units backward the other direction. I can then repeat the flip-flop, essentially making the range units move back and forth for no progress. [Anyway, that is what happens when I do it right. Often, the pack of three will split: one group stays on my original bait’s trail, and the other range unit goes after the new bait. I usually manage because two range units are more avoidable than three. Nonetheless, making that CAV division a dummy is a good idea.] See LEG420 Anticipating AI range unit packs for more details. *LEG236 Enemy CAV movement AI CAV move towards your HDQ. They never pursue your other units. However, the temperament of AI CAV is always randomly determined before each battle. There are two modes: avoid or attack. In avoid mode, AI CAV will ignore contact with your units, moving around them as necessary. Nonetheless, they always attack the most valuable of your units next to them when ending their movement of nine squares. In contrast, attack mode CAV will stop to attack any unit it meets while heading towards your HDQ. You will not know if the CAV are in attack mode or avoid mode unless you are attacked. However, there is one test you could do that might tell you. A Cavalry Blockade may show the AI CAV shifting to move around a blockade. The odds are low that you will get this information: 25% chance at best if you only block one direction. Testing and reloading a game will give you information for certain if you want. It is good to know about Cavalry Blockades, but I will not explain it here because I won’t be using it. (See BUT430 if you want to know.) I advise you to assume AI CAV are in attack mode for LRB Exploit. Thus, keep your units out of the path the AI CAV take towards your HDQ. Even though there is a 50% chance AI CAV are in avoid mode and won’t kill your units, it is unnecessary to take the risk. In addition to CAV direction of travel each turn, the AI range units' direction is pre-determined. [I also believe the infantry and lancers may also, but I haven't tested it.] The range units' movements are independent from the CAV movements: any correspondence is merely happenstance. The directions are finalized after completing the divisions screen, the last screen before the battle begins. The AI CAV division that is closest to your HDQ gets to move first each turn. [I will be watching CAV to verify if this belief is justified.] The nearest CAV division will move to obtain horizontal or vertical alignment with your HDQ. Once that happens, it will move perpendicularly towards your HDQ. The second AI CAV division to move will turn perpendicularly towards your HDQ one square before alignment. I have verified that attack mode CAV also do this early turn. CAV turn early so as to have a clear path to your HDQ, viewing the lead CAV division as an obstacle. The AI plot the CAV movement before moving each turn. If the path using the pre-selected direction of movement runs into obstacles, the path will be adjusted around those obstacles. Those obstacles can be other AI units, your units, impassible terrain (rocks, deep river, fences, moats), or movement slowing terrain (such as river, mountain, ditch, or forest squares). [If the CAV are in attack mode and an obstacle is one of your units, the CAV will not plot around it, but move to attack it.]. Obstacles can cause the AI CAV to move in zigzag fashion following the shortest computed path towards your HDQ. I have seen CAV override the pre-selected movement direction to ford a river early, taking advantage of a one-square river crossing to avoid using a two-square river crossing farther ahead. See Cavalry Elusion at LEG424 for more information about how to dodge cavalry. *LEG237 Moving your HDQ to influence AI CAV movement LEG236 ended stating that AI CAV may alter their pre- selected direction of movement to ford rivers early for a shorter path to your HDQ. For instance, I have seen this happen at Echigo field when the AI CAV are supposed to be traveling vertically, south towards my HDQ. Instead, the CAV divert east to cross the river where it is only one square deep. However, this can only happen if my HDQ is directly south and two or more squares east of the point of crossing. [I am currently testing this at Echigo as a solution to keeping the AI CAV close to each other.] Without obstacles, the AI CAV move in the pre-selected direction towards my HDQ until reaching the point of congruence, then head perpendicularly towards my HDQ. The CAV will never go farther than my HDQ position before turning unless there is a cluster of movement slowing obstacles such as a mountain or forest squares. Thus, I can predict where the AI CAV will be based on the only two choices of movement, horizontally or vertically. I can predict the movement switch perpendicularly when aligned with my HDQ or make the shortest path bend to avoid being slowed or blocked by obstacles. Because I have a way to predict where the AI CAV will be, I have an even stronger intuition of where they will not be. This is important in the LRB Exploit because I need to hide my full-sized divisions of units somewhere on the battlefield. My HDQ movements can create sections of the map that my other units may hide without fear of attack from AI cavalry. My units misleading the AI range units will keep AI range units away from this hiding place (LEG234). Even if my HDQ has no better place to be than in a corner of the map, by placing it four squares away from the corner, either horizontally or vertically, it opens up a lane perpendicularly on the other map side for my units to hide. When the AI CAV get close, then the HDQ retreats into the corner. As long as the hiding units are not where the new HDQ position might take the CAV, they are safe. *LEG240 How many troops do you need for turn 6 AI retreat? For a field battle without capturing a castle, you need an estimated 25% of the army size of the attacked territory. This is because defenders usually muster 30% or 50% of the total army to a field battle. Your 25% of the whole army is thus half of the 50% muster size, meaning, you have 50% of the power of the army you are facing. 50% of the AI army size assures that the LRB Exploit will work. [If the muster size is 80% (BUT030), you are at 31% of the army on the field, which only sometimes will be big enough. That is why you must pay attention to the size of the army you are facing if you are barely meeting the minimum, so you will know if you are facing a bigger army than you anticipated. You may have to retreat your intended LRB Exploit if the rare 80% muster size appears.] To capture a castle, you will need more than 25% of the AI army size. Although I have seen it happen as low as 40%, I have seen stubborn AI that won’t leave unless you have at least 70%. However, you can still get LRB spoils at a castle battle when you don’t have enough troops to cause an AI retreat. The simplest way to do that is to play for the twenty-turn draw (BUT032). Since the AI is not going to run away from battle, you don’t want to engage the enemy too soon. Keep your units far enough away from the castle so that the defenders stay still. Move forward only as turn twenty draws near. Once you send your attacker close, the AI will mobilize. You want there to be insufficient time for the AI to reach your army. Plan how you will kill one AI unit so that you can get the LRB spoils. In the field, the task of killing an AI unit is easily accomplished because the AI CAV are coming for your HDQ. Keeping a dummy unit of riflemen near your HDQ makes this easy. Moreover, having this dummy unit nearby gives you the option of using it to slow down the CAV if you need an extra dummy. I recommend a size one division not only because it is expendable, but also to minimize experience point gain (LEG260). At the castle battle, sometimes you can get the kill LRB spoils requires by shooting a LNC or INF with a RM; other times, you will have to task a size one INF unit to approach and suicide attack one of the AI units. [You could also suicide attack with a size one RM division, although easier to accomplish than the INF technique, it is also a more expensive lost unit. It is suicide because at many castles a shooter will die in counter-attack. Again, size one RM also keeps experience point gain low.] *LEG244 Practical limit on Army Power needs As LEG240 mentioned, 30% or 50% of an AI army will be sent to defend a territory. This happens at least 90% of the time; the rare exception is when 80% muster is sent. So, you must send troops sufficient to cause an AI retreat for 50% of the AI army. [Early in the game, stationing extra troops at an exploiter territory just so the LRB raids can handle a 80% muster is wasteful. Those troops can be used in another exploit elsewhere or participating in the clearing out operations (LEG404). Having only enough troops to meet the 50% muster size is an efficient compromise.] Whatever muster size you face, you must have 50% of that army’s power. That is the general rule for exploiting AI Lords. The largest army a territory can have is 255 Units of Each Type. Half of that, rounded down, is 127 Units Each Type that will be sent to the field battle for a 50% muster, the target preparation. You must have half of that number to cause an AI retreat. Half of that will be 64 Units Each Type (UET). 64 UET is barely possible with the Takeda armies combined from both Shinano and Kai. Note that 64 UET does not require you to have at least 64 Units of Each Type. UET is just an easy way to visualize what you will need. More valuable units such as HDQ and CAV have more unit power. If your army has more than the minimum in one unit type, it may compensate for lacks in other types. For instance, 55RM are all the Takeda combined army has at game start, but there are also 75CAV. These CAV make up for the shortage in RM if 64 UET was the goal. See LEG430 to understand Army Power better. Sagami/Hojo has a large army at game start. If you force out Musashi/Hojo by LRB Exploit tactics, those un- killed troops will flee to Sagami, filling most of the unit type slots to 255. The same is true with Kozuke/Uesugi. If Kozuke is LRB Exploit captured, the refugee units will max out several Echigo/Uesugi unit type slots. It has been established that 64 UET is the AP you will need to LRB Exploit a territory with 255 UET. The implications of this situation will be discussed in the next paragraph. Although it is reassuring to know you have all the troops you need to LRB Exploit any AI army at game start, it should also cause you to realize that you would have trouble defending your other territories when all your units are committed to one exploit. If you had aspirations of exploiting rank 31 Uesugi or rank 23 Hojo, then capturing their lesser territories might not be a good idea. Maybe a conventional ranked army could reduce or capture those territories first, to limit the refugees sent to the Uesugi or Hojo capital territories? (LEG534) Yet, there is one advantage of LRB Exploiting a 255 Units Each Type territory: the unit spoils you will get there will be fantastic, turn after turn. You could quickly build up enough troops to eventually have enough to send elsewhere. This discussion continues at LEG245, below. *LEG245 Splitting up large AI armies for LRB Exploit A large army demands a larger Takeda army to exploit it. If a territory could be offered to such army, it would split and thus proportionately reduce the AP requirements to exploit it. The 412 units in the Takeda starting armies are sufficient to LRB Exploit a territory with the maximum army size, 255 Units in Each Type slot. An exploiter would require 64 UET (384 total units). LEG244 establishes that as true. However, if that 255 units per slot territory were to split into two equal halves, the 412 available Takeda units could also split with each halve capable of exploiting the split AI territory. Instead of one LRB Exploit per month, two could be made against this foe. LEG514 illustrates splitting the forces at Echigo/Uesugi 
     to transfer to become West Shinano/Uesugi.  It is a 
     simple procedure that can be repeated throughout the 
     game.  Splitting tactics to get good LRB Exploits maybe 
     necessary at some point early game before your build 
     bigger armies. 
      
      
      
     *LEG250 
     Player preparation for AI turn 6 retreat: 
      
     As mentioned earlier, it is not guaranteed that the AI 
     will leave on turn 6.  Thus, your CAV units that are 
     distracting the enemy range units should continue doing 
     whatever they were doing as if the battle will continue 
     to turn 7.  Your HDQ, if it has room, should put 
     distance between itself and the AI CAV.  For those that 
     don’t reload, dummy units should be placed next to the 
     enemy CAV divisions if the CAV are close enough to reach 
     the HDQ.   
      
     I, personally, have no qualm about reversing the 
     unlikely outcome where the AI stays on the field and my 
     HDQ is attacked.  I know I could use dummy units at 
     little cost.  I just don’t bother.  I reload and replay 
     eliminates this random result.  I know many find 
     reloading distasteful.  Additionally, some find it 
     inconvenient or impractical, especially if using the 
     original Nintendo equipment for game play.  Thus, dummy 
     unit usage is a sound insurance policy.  [I have to 
     wonder, though, how many will risk attempt to get LRB 
     spoils the next turn if there are no dummy units left?  
     I have seen a few times where non-retreat happens two 
     consecutive turns.] 
      
      
     *LEG260 
     Limiting experience point gain: 
      
     To maximize profits, the Relative Rank between your 
     exploiter territory and the victim must be as large as 
     possible.  Only one kill is necessary to get LRB spoils.  
     Killing more will cause rank gain at a faster rate, 
     requiring re-imprinting an exploiter territory with zero 
     rank sooner.  Furthermore, killing more units will 
     diminish the unit spoils. 
      
     My original thinking was that killing just one unit, 
     preferably an enemy INF, would keep my exploiter army at 
     rank zero.  This would allow endless LRB Exploits 
     without having to re-imprint.  However, I eventually 
     learned that higher ranked AI armies give the first 
     experience point at a lower kill amount than normal 
     (seemingly to foil the LRB Exploit concept).  I learned 
     it had nothing to do with RR.  It was absolute.  Ranks 
     5-7 requires 4CAV killed to get the first experience 
     point.  Rank 15 gives one exp after 2CAV.  Ranks 18-31 
     give one exp after 1CAV.  Rank 42 gives two exp after 
     1CAV kill.  In all cases, the next and subsequent 
     experience points come at the normal rate: one exp for 
     every five CAV kills. 
      
     Because rank gain cannot be avoided and happens faster 
     against the more lucrative LRB Exploit victims, the LRB 
     Exploit will evaporate if there isn’t a pure zero rank 
     territory to re-imprint others.  Thus, the LRB Exploit 
     requires planning to maintain a zero rank territory. 
     (LEG265, LEG400, LEG404, LEG500, LEG510) 
     
 
     *LEG265 
     Preserving the rank zero status: 
      
     LEG260 describes why a zero ranked territory is needed.  
     Here, the discussion will be about how to keep the zero 
     ranked territory safe from accidentally gaining rank 
     when imprinting zero rank clones, conducting raids, or 
     defending against attack. 
      
     The important thing when imprinting another territory 
     with zero or near zero rank is to be sure that the zero 
     rank territory send enough force to guarantee it will 
     not have to retreat back to the source, bringing any 
     experience points gained in battle back into the zero 
     ranked territory.  LEG240 tells you the minimum you 
     need, but until you are familiar with what works against 
     the different AI ranks, it is best to make sure that you 
     send more than enough troops to imprint a new territory. 
      
     What is the difference between zero rank and near zero 
     rank copies? 
      
     Part of the beauty of LRB Exploit is you can get LRB 
     spoils during the imprinting process.  As mentioned at 
     LEG260, battles against higher ranked AI will yield 
     experience points even if only one unit is killed.  
     Although doing so will make the imprinted territory 
     start off with experience points from the field and 
     castle battles, it is of no concern.  The purpose of the 
     cloning was to conduct LRB Exploit raids from the 
     imprinted territory.  Those raids would slowly gain 
     experience points, anyway.  Getting LRB spoils while 
     imprinting is consistent with the purpose. 
      
     [Remember, you can only capture territories with LRB 
     Exploit tactics when the AI ruler has two or more 
     territories.] 
      
     In contrast with the near zero rank imprinting, a zero 
     rank clone requires a more stringent process.  You need 
     a perfect zero because you may want to relocate your 
     zero rank territory to a new location.  In such a case, 
     you must keep it free of experience point gain.  If your 
     army has met the turn 6 AI retreat qualifications 
     (LEG240), the AI will still run away on turn 6 even 
     without killing any AI troops.  Imprinting a perfect 
     zero rank will not get the LRB spoils.  [However, if the 
     territory you are moving into is a rank 15 or lower 
     army, you can kill one unit without gaining experience 
     points.  In such case, you can imprint a perfect zero 
     rank and get LRB spoils.] 
      
     For example, Kozuke can be an expedient place to locate 
     the zero ranked territory, at least at the start of the 
     game.  It can be obtained in the first month of play, 
     freeing Shinano to be captured by rank 7 Murakami or 
     rank 5 Kiso.  Kai can build rank easily by beating the 
     small army invading Shinano.  After the main army builds 
     rank beating up the weaker AI, the Kozuke rank zero 
     territory can move back into Shinano (which I consider 
     the ideal location for the zero rank territory).  
     (LEG400) 
      
     Because of the chance of experience point gain, there is 
     only limited opportunities for a pristine zero ranked 
     territory to conduct LRB Exploit raids of its own.  At 
     the start of the game, Shinano may get decent LRB spoils 
     exploiting rank 12 Kozuke/Uesugi and Kai can exploit 
     rank 15 Suruga/Imagawa.  West Shinano/Kiso and North 
     Shinano/Murakami can also be done, but at ranks 5 and 7, 
     they don’t pay as much to exploit. 
      
     If attacked by a neighboring AI, the pristine zero 
     ranked territory might be hard pressed.   
      
     First, another territory may have to send it troops to 
     have sufficient numbers (LEG212).   
      
     Second, there is no safety net when defending.  When 
     attacking, you can always bail out by retreating with 
     nothing lost but time.  Defending a zero rank territory 
     doesn’t have that luxury because keeping the territory 
     is essential.  Yet, if battle with the higher ranked AI 
     cannot be avoided without being slaughtered in the 
     field, you can try it at the castle.  For example, some 
     maps like Kozuke field are difficult to defend (as the 
     lower ranked army), so the castle battle might be
     better.  And remember, if the enemy is greater than rank 
     15, you must not kill any defender units or else you 
     will get an experience point. 
      
     Use the same combat strategy as for LRB Exploit: AI CAV 
     will be coming for your HDQ.  You must plan how to keep 
     your HDQ safe until turn 6, when the AI will most likely 
     withdraw.  Keep dummy units with your HDQ.  If it is 
     more convenient, slow down the AI CAV before they 
     approach your HDQ.  Send out dummy units to find the AI 
     CAV.  Use your CAV to steer the AI range units to a safe 
     part of the map.  Keep your other units out of the way.   
      
     In some of my games, I will try to maintain TWO rank 
     zero territories so that I have the option of losing one 
     to capture.  My vulnerability is only in the early game.  
     As I maneuver, I will eliminate threats to my zero rank 
     location, thus no longer requiring a backup. 
      
     Alliances are another way to help protect your zero 
     ranked territory.  If there is a threat you cannot meet, 
     an alliance will buy you time.  You can do this in 
     anticipation of the problem, or when the attack comes, 
     you will know which AI you cannot rebuff; make the 
     alliance with that one.  (TM190) 
      
      
      
     *LEG270 
     Castle exploit procedures 
      
     Most castles have a perimeter that activates AI 
     response.  After the initial repositioning from the 
     starting position, eventually the AI attains a stable 
     position and waits.  As long as your units stay outside 
     the perimeter around the castle, the AI army sleeps.   
      
     There is one exception to the above rule: if a unit type 
     that blocked the castle front gates is missing (killed 
     off), the AI range units or cavalry MAY leave the castle 
     unprovoked.  Such blockers are INF and LNC.  But that 
     exception has an exception: the Echigo castle has one 
     front open gate but the riflemen nearby won’t come out 
     unless you pierce the castle perimeter.  Sagami also has 
     unblocked gates but the range units and cavalry won’t 
     seek you unless you move too close to the castle. 
      
     It is easy shooting the gate guardians blocking castle 
     gates.  I recommend using a size-one dummy unit to limit 
     experience point gain.  Also, if you should lose the 
     dummy unit, it is trivial. 
      
     Castles like Sagami don’t have gate guardians.  It is 
     hard to predict what unit will come out and what gate it 
     will leave.  So to make the castle exploit predictable, 
     I advise going inside with a dummy unit.  The dummy unit 
     will die, though.  Similarly, Echigo is easy to get a 
     kill if you are willing to lose a dummy RM. 
      
     The challenge with places like Echigo and Sagami is to 
     get the kill with an INF dummy unit.  I am a cheapskate, 
     so I found a way to do it, but a more sensible thing to 
     do might be to just accept the loss of a RM. 
      
     The crucial aspect of Castle battles is not hiding out 
     or misleading range units, but waiting until the right 
     moment to act.  There might be several turns you must 
     move your dummy unit to get into position, but once 
     there, you wait until there is only two or three turns 
     left before the battle ends.  Then go after the kill.  
     If your other units have been placed properly, the AI 
     cannot reach them with such little time remaining. 
      
     When does the battle end?  That depends on two things: 
     does the AI have two or more castles?  and did you 
     bring a big enough army that the AI will prefer to 
     retreat?  If yes to both questions, you assume that 
     battle ends on turn 6 when the AI has its first chance 
     to retreat.  If not yes to both questions, battle ends 
     at turn 20 when a draw is declared.
      
     Those playing the original Nintendo gaming system may 
     find it tedious to wait so many turns.  The only thing 
     that makes it better for those playing with a Nintendo 
     emulator is that some emulators have a way to spend up
     the movement.  I do it that way and the waiting is not
     a problem.  In terms of total time spent, I believe a
     castle battle is often less than a field battle. 
      
     The topics that follow will give advice for some of the 
     more important castle battles you will face. 
      
     I am at the end of my energy as I write (this is the 
     last part of the guide I wrote).  Precise instructions 
     cannot be written without playing the game.  My priority 
     is to finish this guide to post tomorrow (December 26, 2019).
     I will add details later in revisions. 
      
      
     *LEG273 Castle Sagami 
      
     FULL Divisions: HDQ, CAV, RM, AR, LNC, INF 
     DUMMY DIVISIONS: RM, INF 
      
     First turn, move full divisions into the southwest 
     corner stacked 3 vertical, 2 horizontal.  Move dummy 
     units east touching the south map edge, INF in front of 
     RM.  For the next six turns, do nothing.  Sagami forces 
     will wander around; some may even come out threateningly 
     out the southeast castle front heading west.  Just wait.  
     All will eventually return to the castle.  Wait until 
     turn 8, then send your dummy units east.  Stay along the
     south then bend around the lake east.  You want to arrive
     at the east entrance, one square away from the square 
     next to the drawbridge; do that with both units.  Wait
     there until turn 18. 
      
     Your movement depends on whether there is an AI archer 
     at the junction leading to the castle inner most chamber 
     and the passage between two moats.  If it is an archer, 
     enter the castle and move one square south to be 
     adjacent to the turning of the moat.  The archer will 
     approach you.  Suicide attack it.  But if a LNC or INF 
     is at the junction, enter castle and turn right.  You 
     want to be seven squares away from the junction.  The 
     next turn, the melee unit stays still, you move to 
     attack. 
      
     When your INF moves into the castle, move the RM to 
     stand on the drawbridge over the moat.  The RM is just a 
     backup so all your time is not wasted if your INF fails.  
     Move in and shoot something if the INF dies without a 
     kill.  In time, you may learn that you don’t need the RM 
     dummy unit.  Still, for those that don’t reload, this is 
     a good precaution. 
      
     RM may come out towards you.  Because you are packed 
     into the corner, they can’t get you in time. 
      
      
     *LEG275 Castle Kozuke 
      
     FULL Divisions: HDQ, CAV, RM, AR, LNC, INF 
     DUMMY DIVISIONS: RM 
      
     Move CAV to west map edge then into a river square.  The 
     CAV draws the RM coming out the east exit to the west.  
     Move HDQ to map edge south, two squares from west map 
     edge.  This will draw AI CAV west, while giving your CAV 
     safety from enemy CAV.  Move dummy RM east to the one 
     square north of the third ditch square.  Twelve squares 
     north of you is an AI LNC gate guardian. 
      
     The placement of your CAV and HDQ are just precautions.  
     This is where I place my units when I want to use my 
     full sized RM division to take at least two turns of 
     shots at the enemy (for no good reason).  Because I 
     reload, I can make it so I only shoot once if I shoot 
     too many LNC or INF so that I get an experience point.  
     When the AI come out the castle, they don’t go after my 
     shooter.  That is all the HDQ and CAV positions 
     accomplish.  However, it is a nice lesson on how the AI 
     responds. 
      
      
     *LEG276 Castle Echigo 
      
     FULL Divisions: HDQ, CAV, RM, AR, LNC, INF 
     DUMMY DIVISIONS: RM, 2INF 
      
     Full divisions head to the west map in south corner, but 
     CAV go to west map edge, then north across the river.  
     Destination is west map edge on the same horizontal as 
     the south wall moat.  This position will lure a RM 
     towards the west.  HDQ goes east along with two dummy 
     INF. 
      
     Echigo castle is peculiar in many ways.  There is an INF 
     gate guardian that starts in the southwest castle gate.  
     On the first turn, it leaves the castle on patrol.  It 
     goes two squares south then four squares east.  The next 
     turn, it MAY return.  If it does return, this battle 
     will be easy.  You position your RM south of this spot 
     in the river (if you go farther north, you activate the 
     other AI defenders).  Wait here until turn 19.  On turn 
     19, take one step north (any more than that will cause 
     the RM to leave the castle).  The patrol INF will come 
     out.  On turn 20, move to the maximum distance firing 
     range, five squares north, and shoot the INF.  You will 
     not lose your dummy. 
      
     If the patrol INF heads east to the back of the castle 
     on turn 2, you will have to lose a dummy unit.  I can 
     tell you how to do it with an INF unit, but it is 
     complicated.  The simplest method is to place that dummy 
     RM in the spot I mentioned in the river.  Move five 
     squares north on turn 19.  The RM will come out of the 
     southwest gate towards you.  You can shoot it or the 
     gate guardian at the other gate, the southeast one.  You 
     will lose your dummy unit in counterattack. 
      
     [You may wonder way I put the CAV and HDQ where I did.  
     That is the positions they must be to send one INF unit 
     north to get a suicide kill on the CAV that come for 
     your HDQ.  However, it takes a unit in the trip area to 
     get this to happen.  You can use your RM to do it, but 
     slide west to avoid being shot by the AI RM.  That is 
     when your CAV get closer to lure the AI RM their 
     direction.  I am writing now, not playing, so I can’t 
     give you better instructions.  Yet, I have given you all 
     the clues.  Later, when I am playing, I will add 
     specifics to this guide.  Oh, you have to start this 
     procedure on turn 16 or 17.] 
      
      
     *LEG279 Castle Suruga
      
     FULL Divisions: HDQ, CAV, RM, AR, LNC, INF 
     DUMMY DIVISIONS: RM 
      
     Move the HDQ to the east map edge.  Move a dummy RM to 
     the east map edge parallel to the top of the stone wall 
     five squares west.  This position is six squares south 
     of the LNC gate guard position at the east castle gate.  
     Wait until turn 19, then move six squares north.  Turn 
     20, move one square west and then shoot the LNC at 
     maximum range. 
      
      
     *LEG281 Castle Mikawa 
      
     FULL Divisions: HDQ, CAV, RM, AR, LNC, INF 
     DUMMY DIVISIONS: RM, 2INF 
      
     This is perhaps the hardest castle exploit.  Move HDQ to 
     southeast corner.  Move other units in east forest.  
     This positioning is so that if the AI comes out of the 
     castle, you have the maximum time before you can be 
     reached. 
      
     There is a slender mountain range in the south.  You 
     have to move your dummy units just north of this range.  
     Scout units will be wandering in the west and north 
     parts of the map.  You have to get to the southwest 
     mountains to wait and do so without attracting scout 
     attention.   
      
     At around turn 15-17 (it is hard to say how much time 
     you need), go north to enter the southwest castle 
     entrance.  If you are attempting an INF dummy unit 
     attack, you must get inside, but not in range of a CAV 
     unit.  You will provoke the AI to come to you.  Kill the 
     one that comes in range, backing off if you need to
     adjust for a CAV approach that is just out of range of
     your attack (but you being in the CAV range). 
      
     Doing this with the dummy RM is not any different.  The 
     one difference may be that you could pop out and shoot a 
     scout. 
      
      
      
     SECTION FOUR: 
     A more detailed look at LRB Exploit 
      
     *LEG400 
     Relocating a zero rank territory: 
      
     LEG265 discussed this topic briefly.  The movement of 
     the zero ranked territory previously discussed only 
     worked when the territory to be imprinted was held by an 
     AI lord with two or more territories.  If the AI lord 
     holding the target territory only has that one 
     territory, special care must be taken to move the rank 
     zero into it. 
      
     The first and perhaps better way to move zero rank is to 
     have one of your rank capable territories capture the 
     target then move the troops back out OR have the troops 
     conquer a second territory, moving the army and rank 
     out.  Then another AI lord will capture the territory.  
     You can now proceed as in LEG265 to imprint the 
     territory. 
      
     The second way to do it is to have a rank capable 
     territory reduce the target to having just one HDQ.  
     Send another attacking army containing just one HDQ and 
     have your HDQ kill the enemy HDQ in manual or automatic 
     battle.  A one on one battle will result in the loss of 
     your HDQ, too.  The AI will keep the territory because 
     no HDQ remain on either side.  Now, you attack from your 
     zero rank territory.  The zero rank moves in without 
     battle. 
      
      
      
     *LEG404 
     Eliminating AI lords to prepare for LRB Exploit 
      
     AI lords that control only one territory are an 
     impediment to LRB Exploit.  LEG400 illustrates the 
     problem: imprinting those territories is time consuming.  
     If enough room were made before LRB Exploit operations 
     begin, imprinting zero rank territory clones would be 
     easy. 
      
     The AI lords occupying North Shinano and West Shinano, 
     Murakami and Kiso, are the main problems.  Not only are 
     they occupying prime LRB Exploit real estate, they are 
     aggressive and will generate more random attacks against 
     your territories than other AI lords.  These attacks can 
     be a burden.  Although easily defended because of their 
     low rank, it necessities leaving troops behind in each 
     Takeda held territory or conducting counter attacks from 
     other Takeda territories so that AI armies cannot leave
     on the month they wish to attack.   
      
     For instance, imagine a signal fire over Shinano with a 
     garrison of only 10HDQ and it is the zero ranked 
     territory.  Shinano cannot be lost.  If you had armies 
     in Kozuke and Kai, they would have to either transfer 
     troops to Shinano or both Kozuke must attack North 
     Shinano and Kai attack West Shinano (because you don’t 
     know who is attacking).  In my games, Kai was probably 
     conducting LRB raids on Sagami while Kozuke was engaged 
     in recruiting infantry.  Performing raids on Kiso and 
     Murakami are not as profitable as my raid on Sagami or 
     as important as Kozuke’s activity.  The best choice is 
     moving Kozuke’s army into Shinano so that Kai can still 
     raid Sagami.  Such problems are why my game plans 
     consider eliminating both Kiso and Murakami as soon as I 
     can. 
      
     So, eliminating Kiso and Murakami is a no-brainer.  
     However, I have found a problem doing this.  Afterwards, 
     I have a territory that has rank, but I don’t need it.  
     Clearing out these two obstacles is all I needed.  I 
     need the troops in the ranked territory elsewhere.  They 
     should be in one of my near zero rank exploiters.  
     Although, I can manage to build rank and have a low 
     budget LRB Exploit earning profit simultaneously, I 
     would rather have two LRB Exploits going instead of rank 
     building. 
      
     Because I now don’t need the ranked territory, I could 
     just withdraw the troops and resources, letting the AI 
     have the location.  However, when the time comes that I 
     do need rank for conquest, I will have to start with the 
     pitiful near rank zero exploiter territories.  
     Furthermore, the rank 5 and rank 7 stepping stone 
     nations for building rank are gone from the game.  I 
     will have to struggle against higher ranked armies to 
     slowly build rank again. 
      
     I could alternately find a spot to park my rank that is 
     out of the way of my LRB Exploit operations, but safe 
     enough to protect while it sits with only 10HDQ 
     occupying it.  This can be done, but it will take time 
     to do so.  The best places to park are either Kai or 
     Musashi.  Parking in either place makes LRB Exploit on 
     rank 23 Hojo difficult.  If I park in Kai, my RR with 
     Hojo is low so LRB Exploit is not as worthwhile.  If I 
     park in Musashi, the FIT (BUT417) of Hojo goes up.  
     Also, Sagami’s army at game start is the largest.  I 
     would have to dedicate all my early game troops to Kai 
     if I wanted to exploit Sagami. 
      
     Eliminating Etchu/Hatakeyama is another good place to 
     clear out.  Echigo/Uesugi will likely capture it after I 
     leave which will make rank 31 LRB Exploits easier.   Or, 
     it is now possible to get a near zero exploiter into 
     Etchu to harness rank 42 Noto/General-Li. 
      
     When the path is clear of single territory AI lords, you 
     can chain move the zero or near zero rank to a new 
     location.  As mentioned in the proceeding paragraph, 
     with Etchu and North Shinano clear, if I have a large 
     enough force, I can LRB Exploit bluff my rank zero from 
     Shinano into North Shinano then into Etchu.  In Etchu my 
     force can then start LRB Exploit on rank 42 General-Li. 
      


     LEG408 
     Using your rank zero territory for combat: 
      
     Sometimes the expedient way to keep your zero ranked 
     territory safe is to keep an army stationed there.  
     However, early game, you can’t afford to commit troops 
     to defense.  There is too much need to use soldiers for 
     attack either in rank building, clearing out territories 
     (LEG404), or profitable LRB Exploits.  This topic will 
     explore ways you can make use of the army that is 
     otherwise wasted in a defensive role. 
      
     First, is the army large enough to repel a possible 
     invasion?  If it isn’t, what is the point?  You must 
     have enough troops so that if one of the neighboring AI 
     lords launches an attack, your force will cause a turn 6 
     AI retreat.  The easiest way to evaluate this criterion 
     is to do the calculation against all the neighboring AI.  
     Could you conduct a successful LRB Exploit raid against 
     any one of them?  [I don’t mean this in terms of 
     location, because some maps are difficult.  I mean do 
     you have enough soldiers to theoretically do it?] 
      
     If you have met the first criteria, having enough troops 
     to do an LRB Exploit raid on your neighbors, is there 
     any of them rank 15 or lower?  If so, LRB Exploits are 
     possible that will not cause experience point gain.  The 
     RR may not yield as much spoils, but at least this 
     location will be earning an income.  You will be getting 
     something from the soldiers besides making the territory 
     secure. 
      
     What if you are attacked by an AI that is slightly 
     beyond your Army Power (AP)?  If you can kill enough 
     enemy troops or perhaps eliminate a unit type before 
     leaving the field, you could successfully cause a 
     retreat at the castle.  However, if you did kill the 
     enemy, you would get experience points.  The next 
     paragraph tells how to circumvent that problem. 
     
     The Valve Method:
     When you prepare your reduction force for the field 
     battle, you bring only 1HDQ.  You conduct the battle 
     according to your ability to kill enemy troops, but on 
     turn six, you suicide attack with your 1HDQ.   
      
     You lose the field battle, you get no spoils, but you 
     get no experience points, either.  The dead enemy 
     soldiers stay dead, however.  If enough of the enemy 
     died, your army may now compare favorably against the 
     remaining enemy troops.  In the castle battle, hopefully 
     they will run away on turn 6.  You will have retained 
     your rank zero territory and kept it free of experience 
     points.  Furthermore, if the attacker was a rank 15 or 
     below, the spoils you couldn’t take in the field battle, 
     you can get in the castle battle by killing one enemy 
     unit. 
      
     I have used this method once or twice not in 
     desperation, but because I wanted to reduce the numbers 
     of the attackers.  It was an attack by Echigo/Uesugi on 
     my rank zero Kozuke.  Kozuke couldn’t kill any Uesugi 
     units or else it would gain rank.  Still, I wanted to 
     reduce the Uesugi numbers as part of a slow campaign to 
     reduce the threat of Uesugi.  It was a time saver to 
     take advantage of the opportunity.  I killed what I 
     could in the field, sacrificed my valve, the token 1HDQ, 
     and in the castle battle, waited for Uesugi to leave on 
     turn 6. 
      
     The same idea above can be used to help the main army 
     make conquests by reducing other territories.  For 
     example, West Shinano/Kiso has too many soldiers for Kai 
     to capture in one turn at the start of the game.  
     Instead of using two Kai turns to capture West Shinano, 
     Shinano could do a reduction attack or two, saving Kai a 
     turn (by using the valve method of sacrificing 1HDQ).  
     Kai has the profitable LRB Exploit on rank 23 
     Sagami/Hojo.  Shinano has the modest LRB Exploit on rank 
     12 Kozuke/Uesugi.  Better to use up a Shinano turn than 
     a Kai turn for a reduction attack. 
      
     When Shinano conducts the attack, sending all its force 
     but only 1HDQ, Shinano plays to win the field battle 
     with a Kiso retreat on turn 6.  Shinano then has a full 
     twenty turns at the castle battle to do what damage it 
     can before sacrificing the 1HDQ value unit.  All the 
     spoils and experience points perish with the HDQ’s 
     death. 
      
     If the remaining soldiers in West Shinano/Kiso are small 
     enough, Kai could split its forces to capture West 
     Shinano.  At the start of the game, leaving about 23 
     units of each type behind in Kai will give it enough 
     troops to continue LRB Exploit on Sagami/Hojo at the 50% 
     Hojo muster size (LEG436).  The soldiers in Shinano 
     could merge with the West Shinano army.  Or the whole 
     Kai army could be sent to capture West Shinano and then 
     the Shinano army could move into Kai (leaving 10HDQ 
     behind to hold Shinano).   
      
     Either way, the soldiers in Shinano are now put to 
     better use.  Even though Shinano is no longer defended 
     by the army it once had, the army in West Shinano will 
     next capture North Shinano and possibly Kozuke/Uesugi, 
     as well.  Shinano has been protected by eliminating 
     adjacent AI lords.  The army is mobilized to make 
     conquests.  Kai is making $968 and 700PRD along with 
     unit spoils on LRB Exploits of Sagami/Hojo each month. 
      
     The alternative to this, using Kai two turns to capture 
     West Shinano, has the drawback of bringing rank into 
     Kai.  This rank gain will lower the value of the LRB 
     Exploits on Sagami/Hojo.  Then, to get rid of the rank, 
     it would be best to send all Kai’s forces (not leaving 
     10HDQ to hold the territory) to let Hojo capture it.  
     Then, Shinano will LRB Exploit capture Kai to return the 
     rank to near zero while also moving the army to Kai.  
     However, if Sagami sends 50% of its army to capture Kai, 
     you won’t be able to get them to leave at the castle 
     battle.  A castle battle turn 6 AI retreat often 
     requires 70% of the AI’s AP.  Shinano doesn’t have 
     enough troops.  The attempt will fail, sending a 
     backwash of experience points into Shinano, the zero 
     rank territory you need to preserve. 
      
     Another possibility for Shinano against West 
     Shinano/Kiso is to have Shinano handle the whole thing.  
     Conduct the reduction attack with the valve 1HDQ as 
     indicated earlier.  The next turn, capture West Shinano 
     with Shinano’s forces.  Now that West Shinano is 
     reduced, Shinano could capture it in one turn so that 
     the rank the Shinano army gains will go into West 
     Shinano (but leave 10HDQ behind in Shinano to hold it). 
      
     On the next turn, you can either continue with the 
     ranked army in West Shinano or move troops and resource 
     back to Shinano.  A third option is to send excess 
     troops from Kai into West Shinano.  As mentioned, 24 
     units of each type is all Kai needs to keep doing LRB 
     Exploit raids on Sagami.  With reinforcements, the West 
     Shinano army can go conquering with greater ease. 
      


     *LEG420  
     Anticipating AI range unit packs 
      
     LEG234 finishes with a discussion on how to mislead 
     packs of three AI range units.  I have made some new 
     discoveries that might help this effort: 1) The AI units 
     seem to move in order of the closest, then the next 
     closest, ending with the farthest.  2) AI range units 
     approach horizontally or vertically towards your units 
     in the same manner as AI cavalry do.

     I have since seen evidence that contradicts AI units
     move order determined by player proximity.  I will
     continue to observe how they move, hoping to discover
     the exceptions.

     I have also established that CAV and range units turn
     by turn movement directions are independant of each
     other.  Although half the time they move the same
     direction, the other half time they move
     perpendicularly.
      
     The discoveries above will be grist for future 
     experimentation.  Nonetheless, I can speculate that I 
     may get better positioning of my bait units by 
     anticipating where the AI range units will go.   
      
     There is only two choices to project: horizontal or 
     vertical movement towards my bait.  When the chosen 
     movement reaches alignment with my bait’s position 
     horizontally or vertically, the range unit will switch 
     directions perpendicularly.  I don’t know if this 
     information will yield results, but this topic exists 
     so I can put any techniques here, if I find any.  Also, 
     telling you about it may allow you to figure out 
     something I won’t see or will see much later than you 
     do. 
      


     *LEG424 
     Cavalry Elusion 
      
     Generally, the Takeda HDQ position on any map is 
     sufficiently distant from the AI CAV to elude them until 
     turn 6.  Cavalry’s nine squares of movement per turn are 
     countered by headquarters’ six squares of movement per 
     turn, making the net gain in a race three squares per 
     turn.  The reason the AI CAV catches the Takeda HDQ on 
     turn 5 is because the HDQ doesn’t have enough map space 
     to keep running away. 
      
     Cavalry Elusion is a method of creating space in which 
     to possibly elude the AI cavalry.  For it to work, there 
     must be some space that the HDQ can move freely.  It also
     requires that the available space to move will be safe
     from AI range units’ fire.   
      
     I have successfully gotten Cavalry Elusion to work at 
     Sagami field map and I am analyzing Echigo.  Not every
     map requires Cavalry Elusion, nor is every map worth the
     effort.  For instance, I know that Kai doesn’t have
     enough space for the attacker to use Cavalry Elusion.
     The same is unquestionably true of Musashi.  West Shinano
     and Suruga don’t need it because the AI CAV cannot catch
     the Takeda HDQ on turn 5.  The CAV start too far away. 
      
     Cavalry Elusion attempts to move the HDQ out of limited 
     space when the HDQ is in the southwest or southeast 
     corners of the map.  However, Cavalry Elusion can also
     create space on a map like Echigo field where the Takeda
     HDQ starts in the center of the map.  Space is limited
     not because of a map edge, but because of a river that
     splits the map into two halves.  The enemy has 1-square
     river crossings, but the Takeda position has 2-square
     crossings.  Altlhough moving to cross the river is a
     possiblity, it is logically not an option.

     Creating space requires the HDQ to move to a pivot point.
     A pivot point is a place that is approximately nine
     squares distant (horzontally or vertically)  from the
     lead AI CAV division.  With a 50% chance that the AI CAV
     will move towards the HDQ along the pivot favored
     direction, the HDQ will then move in the opposite
     direction.  The CAV will have to backtrack to equalize
     with the HDQ.  The need to backtrack is what "creates the
     space."  Furthermore, it opens up a direction of travel
     away from the AI CAV instead of being hemmed by the map
     edge.

     Consider Sagami field, for exmample.  I send my HDQ
     north hoping that at the crucial moment the AI CAV go
     south.  When I continue to go north, the nine squares
     the AI CAV moved will have to re-travelled to reach me.
     The nine squares of space was doubled to delay the AI
     CAV for eighteen squares.
 
     I have found that when I set up a pivot point but the
     AI CAV move the opposite direction, I often get a second
     or perhaps a third chance to setup a new pivot point.
     The new pivot point might stay the same direction
     horizontally or vertically, or switch to the
     perpendicular.  For instance, I gamble on north at Sagami
     hoping the AI goes south, but if the AI steadily goes
     west instead, when it reaches the west edge of the map
     north of my retreat into the corner, I can then head east. 
      
     I will now present the analysis of the Sagami/Hojo field 
     battle, Takeda army attacking for LRB Exploit.  I will 
     treat the map as a Cartesian coordinate grid with the 
     southwest corner as (0,0) and the northeast corner thus 
     becomes (29,27).  The range of movement is 30 squares 
     horizontally and 28 squares vertically.  The Takeda HDQ 
     starts five squares away from the southwest corner at 
     (3,2).  The AI CAV start at (19,23) and (23,24).  The 
     CAV are five squares distant from each other.  The 
     distance from HDQ to CAV is 37 and 42 squares. 
      
     The Takeda objective is to elude the AI CAV for five 
     turns, hoping the AI will retreat on the sixth turn.  
     The best the HDQ can do running away from the CAV is 
     five squares into the corner making the distance 42 and 
     47 squares away from the CAV.  In five turns, a CAV can 
     move 45 squares and attack 46 squares away.  Thus, the 
     corner fails to protect the HDQ from CAV for five turns. 
      
     This map has a cluster of mountain squares in the center 
     of the northern part of the map.  Moving the Takeda CAV 
     into the mountains distracts the AI range units.  With 
     the exception of the dummy units that stay near the HDQ, 
     the rest of the army hides in the southeast corner, 
     moving along the bottom south to not attract AI range 
     unit attention. 
      
     Because of the mountains in the northern center map, 
     going east for the HDQ first move is a poor choice, not 
     because of the mountains themselves, but because that is 
     where the AI range units are gathered.  After moving
     east, if the AI CAV randomly moved south, I cannot send
     the HDQ north because the AI range units are nearby.
      
     First turn, the HDQ move from (3,2) north to (3,8).  The 
     CAV will either go south or west towards the HDQ, 
     randomly pre-determined.  (Reloading will not change it, 
     nor change it for the future.  All directions are 
     established when the battle was initiated.) 
      
     [Note that if the CAV choose west first move, its path 
     will bend south to avoid the mountains.] 
      
     The second HDQ move is in response to the first CAV 
     move.  The HDQ needs to be placed nine squares south of 
     the CAV position.  This is the gamble, the pivot point.
     If the CAV move nine squares south to equalize with the
     HDQ, the gamble is won.  The HDQ heads north, gaining
     enough time and space to be beyond CAV interception by
     turn 5. 
      
     The specifics are given in two sets of tables below.
     Set one is second AI CAV move south; set two is second
     AI CAV move west.  Within each set, the are two sub-
     tables.  One is for third AI CAV move vertivally (north
     or south) and the other sub-table is AI CAV move
     horizontally (west or east).

     Each sub-table has the AI CAV move followed by the next
     turn response of the Takeda HDQ.  After the HDQ move, the
     distances to the AI CAV divisions are given.  Each sub-
     table ends with an split option response giving Takeda
     replies to a third or fourth AI CAV move.  The distance
     away establishes the sucess or failure of the procedure.
 
     [CAV move nine squares per turn and attack ten.  Any 
     turn the CAV fails to catch the HDQ, the HDQ adds six 
     more squares of distance.  If there is eleven or more 
     squares distance, the CAV can’t catch the HDQ on the CAV 
     next turn.  If the there is fourteen or more squares 
     distance, the CAV cannot catch the HDQ in the next two
     turns.  This general rule only applies when the HDQ has
     sufficient room to move.  The tables' projections are
     made when the HDQ has reached a position of open space.] 

   ========================================================================== 
   SET #1 2nd AI CAV move south
   
       AI start      (19,23) & (23,24)  (3,2) Player move (3,8) 
   1st AI move south (19,14) & (23,15)  2nd player move   (0,5)  dist 28 & 33 
   2nd AI move south (19,5)  & (23,6)   3rd player move   (0,11) dist 25 & 28 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   3rd AI move north (16,11) & (18,10)  4th player move   (0,17) dist 22 & 25 
   3rd AI move west  (10,5)  & (14,6)   4th Player move   (0,17) dist 22 & 27 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   the map allows (0,27), so the player has plenty of room.  The AI gains 3 
   squares per turn.  There is no way the CAV can catch the player HDQ. 
      
      
   [NOTE that initial AI CAV movement west bends south 
   because of the mountain cluster.] 
      
       AI start      (19,23) & (23,24)  (3,2) Player move (3,8) 
   1st AI move west  (15,18) & (17,21)  2nd player move   (0,9)  dist 24 & 29 
   2nd AI move south (15,9)  & (17,12)  3rd player move   (0,15) dist 21 & 20 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   3rd AI move north (11,14) & (11,15)  4th player move   (0,21) dist 18 & 17 
   3rd AI move west   (6,9)  &  (8,12)  4th Player move   (0,21) dist 18 & 17 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   Player continues north.  AI cannot catch HDQ in next two turns; the lead 
   is too great. 
    
     But if the CAV go west on the second move, foiling the 
     gamble it would go south, there are still many chances 
     of escape.  New pivot points are established.
      
     Consider a nine by nine square on a Cartesian coordinate 
     grid.  No matter where the CAV moves, treat that 
     location as (9,9).  The player then places the HDQ at 
     (0,0).  If the CAV moves west to (0,9), then the HDQ 
     moves to (6,0).  If the CAV moves south to (9,0), the 
     HDQ moves to (0,6).  The player was cornered, with the 
     CAV two turns away.  The player escaped and bought an 
     additional turn that the CAV won’t catch the HDQ:  
     Instead of two turns, the Player made it three. 
      
     But let us imagine further.  Since the positions are 
     symmetrical, let us just imagine the last one: player at 
     (0,6) and the AI CAV at (9,0).  If the CAV moves to 
     (0,0) next, the player could move to (6,6) and again we 
     have a square.  Although not as big as the first one, 
     nine by nine has become a six by six.  Because it is a 
     square, the same kind of dodging can take place, 
     extending the time until the CAV catch the HDQ.  
     However, there is one difference: the HDQ is now in open 
     territory, free to move anywhere, and the CAV are in the 
     corner.  The HDQ position has greatly improved. 
      
     The above nine by nine square is the principle that 
     allows the HDQ to possibly escape.  I did mention that 
     one CAV unit was positioned four squares east of the 
     first division and one square north.  Escaping east has 
     the problem of moving a few squares closer to the second 
     CAV division.  If the right sequence of moves occur, 
     that problem could be nullified.  In the tables that 
     follow, the one time the HDQ is caught is because the 
     second CAV division advantageously used is distance east 
     to catch the player HDQ. 
      
     In the tables that follow, each table shows different 
     variations of the first three moves with the second move 
     always being west.  That was the move that defeated the 
     initial pivot point, the hope of movement south.  After
     the first three moves, the two possible fourth CAV moves
     are grouped together.  The distance after the HDQ
     response will indicate escape if the distance is 11 or
     greater. 
      
     [NOTE that initial AI CAV movement west bends south 
     because of the mountain cluster.  Those that move twice
     west show a bend south on the second move as well.] 

   ========================================================================== 
   SET #2 2nd AI CAV move west
      
       AI start      (19,23) & (23,24)  (3,2) Player move (3,8) 
   1st AI move west  (15,18) & (17,21)  2nd player move   (0,9) dist 24 & 29 
   2nd AI move west   (7,17) & (12,17)  3rd player move   (0,3) dist 21 & 26 
   3rd AI move west   (0,15) &  (3,17)  4th player move   (6,3) dist 18 & 17 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   4th AI move east   (5,11) &  (6,11)  5th player move  (12,3) dist 15 & 14 
   4th AI move south  (0,6)  &  (3,8)   5th player move  (12,3) dist 15 & 14 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

      
       AI start      (19,23) & (23,24)  (3,2) Player move (3,8) 
   1st AI move west  (15,18) & (17,21)  2nd player move   (0,9) dist 24 & 29 
   2nd AI move west   (7,17) & (12,17)  3rd player move   (0,3) dist 21 & 26 
   3rd AI move south  (7,8)  & (12,8)   4th player move   (0,0) dist 15 & 20 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   4th AI move west   (0,7)  &  (3,8)   5th player move   (6,0) dist 13 & 11 
   4th AI move south  (6,0)  & (10,1)   5th player move   (0,6) dist 12 & 15 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
      
      
       AI start      (19,23) & (23,24)  (3,2) Player move (3,8) 
   1st AI move south (19,14) & (23,15)  2nd player move   (0,5) dist 28 & 33 
   2nd AI move west  (10,14) & (14,15)  3rd player move   (2,1) dist 21 & 26 
   3rd AI move west   (2,13) &  (5,15)  4th player move   (8,1) dist 18 & 17 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   4th AI move east   (7,9)  &  (8,9)   5th player move  (14,1) dist 15 & 14 
   4th AI move south  (6,0)  & (10,1)   5th player move   (0,6) dist 12 & 15 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
      
      
       AI start      (19,23) & (23,24)  (3,2) Player move (3,8) 
   1st AI move south (19,14) & (23,15)  2nd player move   (0,5) dist 28 & 33 
   2nd AI move west  (10,14) & (14,15)  3rd player move   (2,1) dist 21 & 26 
   3rd AI move south (10,5)  & (14,6)   4th player move   (0,0) dist 15 & 20 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   4th AI move west   (1,5)  &  (3,6)   5th player move   (6,0) dist 10 &  9 
   4th AI move south  (6,0)  & (10,1)   5th player move   (0,6) dist 12 & 15 
   -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
      
     There are 16 permutations of the first four CAV moves.  
     I was able to elude the CAV for five turns on 15 of 
     those 16 permutations.  That is a 93.75 success rate 
     using the Cavalry Elusion method at Sagami field. 
      
     I intend to analyze Echigo and possibly other maps.  I 
     may have a section giving the movements to make for 
     Cavalry Elusion at various locations in the future.  I 
     truly believe that on many maps it is possible at least 
     once to gamble on AI CAV movement with a resultant 50% 
     chance to elude cavalry. 



     *LEG430 
     Measuring Army Power (AP) with IRAP: 
      
     The computer evaluates the power of each unit type the 
     same way it does for experience point gain.  The 
     experience points given for killing an infantry, for 
     example, is .05 points.  BUT060 explains experience 
     points. 
      
     Similarly, each INF unit gives an army .05 points of 
     power.  All the infantry units multiplied by .05 gives 
     the power amount that infantry contributes to the total 
     Army Power. 
      
     The table that follows displays a comparison between the 
     player’s army and Sagami’s army at the start of the 
     game.  Everything is as at appears except the total 
     under the Unit Power column.  UET (Unit of Each Type) is 
     here (and here only) the power of one Unit of Each Type 
     added together (which is .80).  The use of this number 
     will be explained at LEG436. 
      
           KAI/TAKEDA               SAGAMI/HOJO 
                Unit  Total              Unit  Total 
     Units Type Power Power   Units Type Power Power 
     ------------------------------------------------- 
      050  HDQ  .20   10.00    220  HDQ  .20   44.00 
      045  CAV  .20    9.00    165  CAV  .20   33.00 
      035  RM   .15    5.25    140  RM   .15   21.00 
      037  AR   .10    3.70    195  AR   .10   19.50 
      040  LNC  .10    4.00    190  LNC  .10   19.00 
      045  INF  .05    2.25    190  INF  .05    9.50 
     ================================================== 
      252       .80   34.20   1100       .80  146.00 
     TOTAL      UET   ARMY    TOTAL      UET   ARMY 
     UNITS            POWER   UNITS            POWER 
      
     IRAP vs. 100% AI AP = .234 
     IRAP vs.  80% AI AP = .293 
     IRAP vs.  50% AI AP = .468 
     IRAP vs.  30% AI AP = .781 
      
     Kai’s AP is 34.20 and Sagami’s AP is 146.00.  Dividing 
     Kai’s AP by Sagami’s AP will give a mathematical ratio 
     of Kai’s power with Sagami’s power.  This ratio is more 
     important than knowing the actual army sizes or AP.  I 
     have dubbed it Index of Relative Army Power (IRAP).  In 
     this case, the IRAP is 34.20 divided by 146.00 which is 
     .234. 
      
     The IRAP of .234 is what would be the measure of armies 
     at the Sagami castle battle, when the entire Hojo army 
     would meet the Takeda army.  However, before the castle 
     comes the field battle.  As BUT030 explains, the field 
     battle will only see 30%, 50%, or 80% of the Hojo army.  
     It is unlikely the army numbers can divide into 30%/70%, 
     50%/50%, or 80%/20% groups that meet the exact 
     proportions.  For instance, 11HDQ can’t be allocated 
     into two 50% groups, nor a group of 30% of 11HDQ and a 
     group of 70% of 11HDQ.  Any math done using the total 
     IRAP would only be an estimation. 
      
     Accepting that calculations will be estimates, the .234 
     would scale to .781 for 30% muster, .468 for 50% muster, 
     and .293 for 80% muster.  At the beginning of the game, 
     it only takes an IRAP of .244 to LRB Exploit Sagami so 
     no matter the muster size, Kai has enough troops. 
      
      
      
     *LEG432 
     Definition of the FIT based on IRAP 
      
     Why does the IRAP matter?  I did testing attacking 
     Sagami with Kai’s army.  I varied my army size and 
     number of kills and units lost.  I found that I needed 
     an IRAP of .244 in order to get Hojo to leave the field 
     battle on turn 6.  I later dubbed this number as the FIT 
     (Flee Irap Threshold).  It means how high my IRAP must 
     be in order to do a LRB Exploit against a particular AI 
     -- what it takes to make the AI leave on turn 6. 
      
     When I did my testing, I did not use estimates of the 
     IRAP.  I calculated IRAP based on the units on the field 
     when Hojo left on turn 6 or refused to leave on turn 6.  
     The IRAP that matters is not what it was at the start of 
     the battle, but what it is on turn 6.  Units are lost on 
     both sides.  That is why you can start a battle that you 
     don’t have enough IRAP to win, but kill enough units, 
     and the AI will leave on turn 6, anyway.  If the IRAP 
     has changed to equal or be better than the FIT, the AI 
     will leave on turn 6. 
      
     As I played and tested, I found the FIT can change, too.  
     I tried varying my army attack on Sagami.  I found that 
     even if I had the same minimum IRAP that met the FIT 
     requirement, if I made my army only contain HDQ and CAV 
     along with the few dummy units I needed, the FIT 
     changed.  Having missing unit types increase the FIT.   
     If you are missing unit types, the FIT goes up.  If the 
     AI is missing unit types, the FIT goes down. 
      
     This result confirmed earlier results I had when 
     learning the LRB Exploit.  My first exploits called for 
     reducing AI armies to just HDQ and INF.  I realized it 
     worked, but I thought it was just that the enemy had 
     less troops.  I tested it.  It was more than that.  An 
     AI with missing unit types will have a lower FIT. 
      
     Later testing showed that AI lords with only one 
     territory had higher FIT than the same lord when having 
     two territories.  Intuitively, it makes sense that an 
     army would be more tenacious if having nowhere else to 
     flee.  Consistently, a single territory AI lord will 
     have a lower FIT when gaining a second territory.  Also, 
     with some exceptions, those AI with higher ranks have 
     higher FITs.  That makes sense, too.  The higher rank AI 
     take more force to scare them.  Yet, it is not the 
     absolute rank that matters.  It is the Relative Rank 
     between armies that changes the FIT.  As your rank 
     increases, the FITs of AI opponents will lower. 
      
     I found other variables that made keeping track of the 
     FIT values seem impossible.  For instance, if I captured 
     Kozuke/Uesugi first month with Shinano’s army, the only 
     LRB Exploit possible from Kozuke/Takeda to Echigo/Uesugi 
     should be at 30% muster size.  I found 50% worked even 
     though I lacked the AP.  It seemed to work because the 
     demoralized soldiers that abandoned Kozuke lowered the 
     FIT of the soldiers in Echigo.  That is the only logical 
     sense I can make of it.  It should have been the FIT of 
     Echigo going up because Uesugi now only had one 
     territory.  I was baffled. 
      
     The testing for FIT values is tedious because it 
     requires many repetitions.  To gain a preliminary 
     understanding, testing was necessary.  Yet now that I 
     have some understanding, I also understand that it is 
     too complex for me to figure out right now.  I will test 
     again later after gaining more playing experience. 
      
     There are a few FITs I did calculate and trust as being 
     true (LEG436).  Those ones are extremely useful.  
     However, for most other situations, I will be using 
     approximations such as the minimum 25% of total AP for 
     field battle LRB exploits (prepared to have at least 50% 
     of the AP of a 50% mustered AI army to the field). 
      
     I wrote a section of this guide dedicated to pragmatists 
     that don’t want all the technical details but would 
     rather have the simpler approximate way to do LRB 
     Exploits.  I am going to try to play that way, too.  I 
     will sample how well it functions before I try to figure 
     out a better way to predict AI turn 6 retreat. 
      
     When you bring a large enough army with you, the minimum 
     Army Power to get the AI to flee is irrelevant.  The one 
     situation that requires carefully choosing your AP is 
     when exploiting at a castle battle against an AI with 
     two or more territories.  If you don’t want to capture 
     the castle, you must limit the number of troops you 
     bring.  The pragmatic solution to that is to set up your 
     exploits against AI with only one territory.  Then, you 
     can bring as much force as you want with no worries. 
      
      
      
     *LEG436 
     Value of the FITs I did discover 
      
     Below is a table listing the most interesting LRB 
     Exploits within proximity of the Takeda starting 
     location.  It lists the army compositions, the total 
     units, and the Army Power (AP). 
      
         Kai      Sagami      Kozuke     Mikawa       Mino 
             Shinano    Suruga     Echigo       Noto 
     HDQ  50   30   220   120   70   180   150   160   100 
     CAV  45   30   165   140   25   200   125    90    80 
     RM   35   20   140    90   40   110   130   220    85 
     AR   37   25   195   125   65   170   120   100    90 
     LNC  40   25   190   145   90   170   105   125    95 
     INF  45   30   190   120   95   200   145   135   140 
     -----------------------------------------------------
 UNITS   252  160  1100   740  385  1030   775   830   590 
    AP 34.20    146.00      45.25      104.25       74.25 
             21.50      98.50     136.50      112.25 
      
     FITs I know: 
     Sagami/Hojo     rank23  .244 
     Suruga/Imagawa  rank15  .243 
     Kozuke/Uesugi   rank12  .465 
      
     Using the FITs I know, I can project how many troops you 
     will need to send to battle to do a 50% muster field LRB 
     Exploit.  This is where the UET from the table at LEG430 
     takes meaning.  The AP of a Unit of Every Type is the 
     .80 in the table.  By dividing by this number, .80, you 
     can get an estimate of how many units of each type you 
     will need to conduct a successful LRB raid. 
      
     For example, Sagami’s AP is 146.00.  The FIT for Sagami 
     is .244 and we want that at a 50% muster.  So, the AP 
     needed to match the need is 146.00 times .244 times .50, 
     which is 17.812.  Divide the AP needed by .80 to find 
     out how many Units of Each Type are needed.  The result 
     is 22.265.  That means I will need a raider army of at 
     least 23 units of each type (HDQ, CAV, RM, AR, LNC, and 
     INF at 23 units each).  This is the Units of Each Type 
     (UET) needed to raid Sagami. 
      
                    Rank   FIT   UET 
     Sagami/Hojo     23   .244    23 
     Suruga/Imagawa  15   .243    15 
     Kozuke/Uesugi   12   .465    14 
      
     I make use of this information at Kai.  Early in the 
     game, I am either going to do LRB Exploits on Sagami or 
     Suruga (the reason I would do Suruga is to preserve rank 
     zero in Kai).  Early in the game, I would do the chosen 
     raids a few times to gather resources then send the 
     resources to Shinano along with excess troops.  The 
     above table lists the minimums I need to keep doing LRB 
     Exploits.   
      
     [Because I gain unit spoils in battle, the number of 
     troops I send to Shinano will increase.  Also, by 
     reducing troops in Suruga or Sagami, I could recalculate 
     my minimum UET.  It may have dropped another unit.  Yet, 
     it is safer to keep the base UET.  The turn I spend 
     moving allows my victim a chance to upgrade INF or 
     recruit more.  That could change the balance.] 
      
     You may notice that rank 23 Sagami requires 23 UET 
     minimum; rank 15 Suruga requires 15 UET minimum.  
     Although this may look like the rank and UET are 
     related, it is only coincidence.  UET has to do with the 
     number of troops in the AI territories.  Rank has little 
     to do with it. 
      
      
      
     *LEG438 
     LRB Exploits possible with game start armies 
      
     The next table shows how the Takeda armies in Shinano 
     and Kai measure against the AI armies nearby.  50% and
     30% musters are most common, with about a 5%-10% chance
     of an 80% muster.  I consider it a reasonable gamble to
     only prepare for the 50% muster.  Doing so covers both
     the 50% and 30%.  For those that may want to gamble that
     the 30% muster is sent, I have also included the 30%
     muster analysis.
      
     Omitted from the table are Sagami, Suruga, and Kozuke.  
     Those raids were already discussed at LEG436.  Also 
     missing are rank 5 West Shinano/Kiso, rank 7 North 
     Shinano/Murakami, and rank 9 Totoumi/Imagawa.  These are 
     all LRB Exploitable because the armies are sufficiently 
     small.  No need to show it. 
              
     FIELD BATTLE at common muster sizes 
              50% MUSTER      30% MUSTER
              KAI  SHINANO    KAI  SHINANO 
             IRAP   IRAP     IRAP   IRAP 
     Echigo  .501   .315     .835   .525 
     Mikawa  .656   .412    1.094   .687 
     Mino    .921   .579    1.535   .965 
     Noto    .609   .383    1.016   .638 
      
     The general rule is .500 is the safe IRAP needed for LRB 
     Exploit (any battle where you have 50% of the AI AP is 
     exploitable).  So, if you did not know the FIT for any 
     of the above, those with .500 or higher would be safe to 
     assume the full Kai or Shinano army could LRB Exploit.  
     As you can see, Kai has enough troops for every AI 
     listed.  Yet, Shinano is too small for all but Mino. 
      
     You can still try to exploit AI territories if you are 
     below the .500 IRAP at 50% muster.  You could do this 
     only if you have enough AP to be .500 IRAP at the 30% 
     muster size.  You would be gambling that the AI sends 
     30% muster instead of 50% or the rare 80%. 
      
      
     *LEG439 
     What to do to increase Army Power 
      
     One problem I see when I am doing my calculations is 
     that some exploits will take all my army to succeed.  
     Many times I am not willing to abandon Kai or Shinano to 
     AI capture when I am gone.  All the AI listed at LEG438 
     are not adjacent to my home territories.  I would have 
     to travel to get there.  When I do, I like to leave 
     10HDQ behind to bluff hold my territory.  That 10HDQ 
     missing from my army drops my AP 2.0 points (10HDQ x .20 
     HDQ unit power = 2.0). (LEG430) 
      
     How do I make up for that loss of power?  A few LRB 
     Exploits against a large army will do it depending how 
     many are sent to the field battle.  Unit spoils may give 
     enough.  However, assume that isn’t an option.   
      
     Another way to do it is to upgrade INF (but make sure 
     you have some left to use as dummy units).  You lose the 
     INF you upgrade, so you have to account for that loss of 
     power when gaining power.  You do that by upgrading a 
     few more.  Obviously, you could upgrade INF to HDQ:  
     14INF to 14HDQ will cost $1120.  Yet, the best low cost 
     upgrade of a .05 unit power INF is to a .20 unit power 
     CAV.  14INF upgraded to 14CAV ($420) increases power 2.1 
     points.  But if you can’t afford that, the most 
     economical upgrade is a .10 unit power LNC.  40INF 
     upgraded to 40LNC ($320) increases power 2.0 points.  
     Alternately, 2.0 points can be had from recruiting 40 
     infantry. 
      
     Army Power 
     10HDQ = 10CAV = (-14INF upgraded to +14CAV -.1) 
     10HDQ = 20LNC = (-40INF upgraded to +40LNC) 
     10HDQ = 40INF 
      
     It is my practice to leave 10HDQ behind in my 
     territories when my army leaves.  Each ‘‘deposit’’ erodes 
     my army power.  However, pausing conquest to do LRB 
     raids, I can compensate with new recruits.  For example, 
     launching my first conquest against North Shinano from 
     Shinano, even though at rank 7, I will pause conquest of 
     West Shinano by gathering some resources and troops by 
     LRB Exploiting the large army in Echigo/Uesugi.  Unit 
     spoils there will be good.  This is also a fitting 
     example of how I merge the LRB Exploit with rank 
     gain/conquest.  In this case, the Relative Rank is 
     31 - 7 = 24.  I will still get about $1000 and 730PRD in 
     addition to the desperately needed unit spoils.  And the 
     LRB Exploit against Uesugi doesn’t require me to kill 
     just one unit.  I can kill as many as I like because I 
     am using a ranked army for the exploit. 
      
     [Be cautious when doing this type of raid though.  One 
     time my rank 7 army was too powerful.  Rank 31 Uesugi 
     fled to Kozuke at the castle battle, removing the rank 
     31 army from the game.  This was not intended or 
     desirable.  See LEG450.] 
      
      
      
     *LEG45O 
     Avoiding castle capture 
      
     It was stated at LEG240 that capturing a castle by AI 
     retreat takes anywhere between 40% - 70% of the AI Army 
     Power.  This information is provided not just so that 
     you can capture a castle, but so you can avoid doing so. 
      
     In my earliest LRB Exploits, I overcame some of the 
     troops needed to cause AI turn 6 retreat by giving away 
     a territory to the AI.  The new colony AP would be 
     lower, easier to exploit, but the AI would abandon the
     castle.  I would have to setup the exploit again by 
     retreating to restart the cycle.  I also did it this way 
     to avoid contaminating my zero rank territory. 
      
     Now, my tactics use exploiter clone territories. I now 
     know rank gain is unavoidable, yet I can minimize the 
     rate gain and I have a plan in place to reprint 
     territories when rank gets too high (LEG265).  Thus, 
     when I split a large AI into a colony territory, I don’t 
     want it for only one exploit.  I want the AI to stay in
     its castle so I can exploit it over and over again. 
      
     I need to make sure I am sending enough troops to 
     successfully do the field battle exploit, but not so 
     many as to have the AI flee the castle battle.  The 
     seriousness of this problem is illustrated by a time I 
     captured North Shinano and could then exploit rank 31 
     Echigo/Uesugi.  I had a rank 7 exploiter with a .43 IRAP 
     at the castle.  Uesugi ran away to rank 12 Kozuke.  Not 
     only is this not what I intended, I could no longer fix 
     it.  The rank 31 army had left the game; only the rank 
     12 one remained.  My cash cow was gone. 
      
     [Of course, my higher ranked exploiter made the FIT for 
     Uesugi lower, too.  That is a contributing factor 
     (LEG432).  I made my first conquest from Shinano, a one-
     turn capture of North Shinano.  That is why I was rank 
     7.  I paused my rank gain to take a few resource and unit 
     spoils exploits from Uesugi.  Even at rank 7, the RR was
     24 yielding higher exploits than at Kai on rank 23
     Sagami.]
      
     When I first started my LRB research, I had believed 
     that the only way to prevent retreat at the castle was 
     to make sure my victim only had one territory.  Now, 
     with the investigation of the IRAP and FIT concepts 
     (LEG430, LEG432), I know I can tightly control my Army 
     Power to keep the AI from running away. 
      
     Another example is Kozuke/Uesugi, the rank 12 LRB 
     Exploit that makes Shinano a profitable zero rank 
     territory.  LRB raids on Kozuke can be done without 
     experience point gain.  However, even if leaving 10HDQ 
     behind, sending the full, though small army of Shinano 
     will cause Kozuke/Uesugi to abandon the castle. 
      
     LEG436 gives a clue: it only takes 14 Units of Each Type 
     (UET) to LRB Exploit Kozuke/Uesugi.  Shinano’s force is 
     a little short of twice that.  So, knowing if I send too 
     many, Uesugi will run away, I make my raids with a 
     reduced force.  I am not there to kill a bunch of units, 
     anyway.  I want the spoils, only.  [Before I did the 
     calculations, I was using 20 UET and Uesugi wasn’t 
     running away.] 
      
     If you make your IRAP a .30 of the total army, you 
     should be good.  30% of the total army means a 60% of 
     the expected 50% muster at the field.  Or, you could 
     gamble higher, say IRAP=.40.  .40 will be a .50 IRAP 
     against a 80% muster size.  That is nice because it 
     means no matter what muster size is sent, your force is 
     big enough to intimidate it, but still small enough to 
     not spook the AI out of the castle.  The gamble is that
     the units the AI loses from combat and as unit spoils
     doesn't further bump your IRAP higher.  Also, there are
     unforeseeable situations where .40 is too high so the
     AI will abandon the castle.  In the example I gave
     earlier, the mistake I made at Echigo was I didn't
     factor in the decreased FIT because my exploiter wasn't
     a rank zero but a rank 7.

     I don't have hard data for the change in FIT based on
     rank, but in the miniscule testing I did, I would guess
     that FIT drops about .01 for every rank above zero of
     your exploiter army.



     *LEG452 
     Advice calculating the IRAP 
      
     I have an Excel spreadsheet created that allows me to 
     enter the numbers for each unit type.  The total Army 
     Power is calculated for my army and the AI opponent.  
     The IRAPs at each muster size are shown.  By adjusting 
     my unit counts, I can see in real time how much 
     adjustment I need to reach a target IRAP.   
      
     See the table at LEG430 for the pattern you will need to 
     make your own spreadsheet.  All you need is some extra 
     cells for IRAP at 100%, 80%, 50%, and 30%.  IRAP is the 
     Takeda AP divided by the AI AP.  (Divide the 100% IRAP 
     by 80%, 50%, and 30% for the other values for their 
     corresponding cells.) 
      
      
      
     SECTION FIVE:  
     Empire Planning and Strategies 
      
     *LEG500 
     This section begins by making long-term plans.  These 
     plans are the position you want to obtain.  Next comes a 
     more practical evaluation of how to start the game.  The 
     early game makes the preparations to begin working on 
     the long-term plan. 
      
      
     *LEG510 
     Empire Objectives: 
      
     The most important thing about an LRB Exploit empire has 
     already been highlighted: You must protect your zero 
     rank territory (LEG260, LEG265).  If you lose your zero 
     rank territory, your LRB Exploit game is dying.  Soon, 
     you won’t be using LRB Exploit tactics.  You need a 
     different guide, not this one.  Since this is an LRB 
     Exploit Guide (LEG), maintaining a zero rank territory 
     has to be the preeminent concern.  Thus, all empire 
     planning must revolve around zero rank territory 
     placement and protection. 
      
     You will need resources to get your empire started.  
     Regular combat spoils will lessen as rank grows.  
     Whatever your priorities, you have to pause for some LRB 
     Exploit infusions of resources. 
      
     You need a place to sell PRD.  About 42% of your 
     resource spoils will be PRD.  It is wasteful to sell at 
     $1 or $2. 
      
     You will need to clear out some AI territories at some 
     point.  You may or may not need a ranked army.  And if 
     you keep the rank, you must find a location to hold it.  
     The troops are needed for LRB Exploit, not conquest (at 
     least initially). 
      


     *LEG512 
     What territory will keep the zero rank? 
      
     Where do you want the zero rank to be when you are doing 
     your LRB Exploits?  What place is convenient for re-
     imprinting near zero rank exploiters that is also not 
     subject to AI attack?  [Defending a near zero rank clone 
     is of no concern.  An army is likely there, anyway.  
     Also, because it is a clone, it can move off its 
     resources and army, allowing itself to be captured.  In 
     fact, as you read, you will find that such behavior is 
     part of the plan.] 
      
      
     *LEG513 
     Plan: Zero rank in HIDA: 
      
     The best place I could imagine was Hida.  It only has 
     two adjacent territories, Etchu and Mino, so it is 
     defensible.  Furthermore, Etchu and Mino are the reasons 
     Hida is a good location.  Etchu can exploit rank 42 
     Noto/General-Li and Mino can exploit rank 54 Owari/Oda. 
      
     Etchu and Mino would exploit their respective high rank 
     AI targets.  Etchu would make $1774 and 1278PRD per 
     month.  Mino would make $2196 and 1582PRD per month.  
     Etchu can store five months of exploits, but Mino can 
     only store four.  I originally thought to have them drop 
     off all the resources elsewhere so they could keep LRB 
     Exploit raiding, but there is no way to spend that many 
     resources.  (TM441) 
      
     My revised thought was to have Etchu and Owari do fewer 
     raids, spending some time repairing territory statistics 
     for recruiting infantry.  When the infantry slot was 
     full, all the PRD and most of the cash would go to Hida.  
     Hida would upgrade infantry, sell PRD, and send out 
     troops, gold, and maybe PRD to other territories. 
      
     When the time to re-imprint the near zero rank in Etchu 
     or Mino came, on their usual infantry and resource 
     drops, they would send all the army so that the 
     territory would be captured.  Hida would upgrade troops 
     and then re-imprint the exploiter territory, returning 
     the army where it calls home. 
      
     I still think this is a great plan, but it takes time to 
     implement.  First, a ranked Takeda army has to clear out 
     the AI occupying Etchu, Hida, and Mino.  This has to be 
     done by clearing out both West Shinano and North 
     Shinano, too (one on the way out and one on the way 
     back).  Next, an imprinter army has to transfer the zero 
     rank through at least three territories to reach Hida.  
     To keep a perfect zero rank, the imprinter raids will 
     not yield LRB spoils, so it will be a profitless period 
     of time.  As you know, LRB Conquests take larger armies, 
     so I will also have to commit all my forces to 
     accomplish the plan.  Because of the long period without 
     income, I realized I could not do it until I already had 
     some wealth, so that means waiting a while before
     implementation.  Instead of carrying out the Hida plan,
     I went back to making a new plan.  (LEG400, LEG404) 
      


     *LEG514 
     Plan: Zero rank in Kozuke: 
      
     I have made many plans with Kozuke holding the rank 
     zero, but the best one is typified by having all my 
     exploits against the same territory: West Shinano. 
      
     West Shinano is adjacent to seven other territories.  I 
     could place exploiters along all seven of them.  
     Obviously, four is the most I could ever use in one 
     month, so the idea has delusions of grandeur in its 
     formation.  However, because there are so many exploiter 
     locations, I could have a backup zero rank territory 
     somewhere, such as Suruga. 
      
     Having two zero rank territories eliminates some of the 
     concern for safety.  If there was an attack on either 
     that I couldn’t thwart, I could start the process of re-
     imprinting a perfect zero.  Besides safety, a second 
     benefit is easy re-imprinting.  Kozuke can directly re-
     imprint North Shinano and Shinano.  A pure zero in 
     Suruga could re-imprint Kai and Totoumi directly.  
     (Suruga will not be used for LRB Exploit raids.) 
     

     As for West Shinano, it is easy to bring rank 31 Uesugi 
     into it.  Army in Shinano zero clones Kozuke, letting 
     Shinano be captured.  Leaving 10HDQ, army in Kai retakes 
     Shinano and then captures North Shinano and West 
     Shinano.  From West Shinano, Suruga is reduced for both 
     rank building and to prepare it to be zero cloned.  
     Leaving 10HDQ, the army in Kozuke moves to Kai to 
     accomplish the cloning of Suruga.  West Shinano then 
     captures Totoumi.  (The army in Suruga/Imagawa is of 
     moderate size, so it may take two months of reduction to 
     get its size down low enough to abandon the castle 
     because the army in Kai is small (the army originally in 
     Shinano at game start)). 
     
     FORCED TERRITORY CAPTURER:
     The Echigo Uesugi army will take empty North Shinano and 
     Shinano.  Uesugi will split either North Shinano or 
     Shinano to capture West Shinano (however, you can force 
     it to be Shinano or North Shinano by moving out PRD -
                                                         - 
     explained later).  Leaving 10HDQ, the army in Totoumi 
     moves to Kozuke.  Kozuke leaves 10HDQ to near zero clone 
     Shinano.  Shinano leaves 10HDQ to near zero clone North 
     Shinano (the order doesn’t matter). 
      
     The beauty of this plan is that Echigo/Uesugi is close 
     to 255 UET after the refugees from Kozuke arrive.  It 
     would take a 64 UET army to exploit.  But this plan will 
     cause Uesugi armies to split several times.  It is quite 
     likely that the size of the Uesugi army that ends up in 
     West Shinano will be small enough that Takeda forces can 
     be divided amongst several exploiters for LRB raids.  
     The only doubt is where the refugees will go when North 
     Shinano and Shinano are retaken. 
      
     This plan can be done quickly at the start of the game.

     One thing I forgot to mention, West Shinano is an easy 
     place to raid.  The field battle CAV are too far away to 
     reach your HDQ before turn 6 and the AI range units are 
     too far away, also.  The castle battle is an an easy
     shot at the LNC guarding the front gate.
      
     [A few paragraphs above at FORCED TERRITORY CAPTURER, 
     I said removing PRD could force things.  Here is the
     explanation: Removing all but 5PRD in North Shinano will
     only allow North Shinano/Uesugi to capture Shinano.
     Shinano would then be the one to capture West Shinano.
     Conversely, removing all the PRD from Shinano would mean
     the Uesugi split would come from North Shinano to capture
     West Shinano.  You would only remove PRD if for some
     reason it matters.  For example, if you wanted to reclaim
     one of these territories early, you would want to know
     which one to recapture.  You wouldn’t want to stop the
     one attacking West Shinano.] 
      


     *LEG515 
     Plan: Zero rank in Shinano, using Etchu and Mino: 
      
     This one has the same exploit points as LEG513: rank 42 
     Noto/General-Li and rank 54 Owari/Oda.  What is 
     different is that the zero rank territory does not have 
     to move to Hida.  This will simplify the preparation 
     needed.  After clearing out North Shinano and Etchu, the 
     zero rank can chain from Shinano to Etchu.  The same is 
     true of Mino after it and West Shinano are cleared. 
      


     *LEG516 
     Plan: Zero rank in Shinano, center of empire 
      
     The plan here is to use North Shinano and Kozuke to 
     exploit rank 31 Echigo/Uesugi.  Kai will exploit rank 23 
     Sagami/Hojo.  And West Shinano will exploit rank 28 
     Mikawa/Matsudaira. 
      
     Shinano will sit in the center of the empire, re-
     imprinting territories as necessary.  Because it is in 
     the center of Takeda controlled territories, Shinano is 
     not exposed to attack. 
      
     Shinano will process the PRD earned in the four 
     exploiters.  The four exploiters will use the gold from 
     exploitations to repair territory statistics to recruit 
     infantry.  Infantry and PRD will be sent to Shinano.  
     Shinano will be YLD 100 in order to sell PRD, but have 
     zero LOY and zero WEL because it will not recruit 
     infantry.  It will also have low CLT.  Low CLT and WEL 
     make for good upgrade prices.  Shinano’s role is to sell 
     PRD and use the gold to upgrade the infantry sent to it. 
      
     By having Shinano process the PRD and do the upgrading 
     of INF, it leaves more free turns for the exploiter 
     territories to actually do the LRB Exploit. 
      
     [Although low CLT means greater chance for epidemic, it 
     is not an issue.  Epidemic does two things: it lowers 
     WEL each month and kills INF.  Shinano will be zero WEL, 
     anyway.  And if INF are promptly upgraded when sent 
     during the month 7 to month 11 span of epidemic, then 
     epidemic has no affect on Shinano’s functioning.  Also, 
     you can avoid epidemic even happening by managing only 
     exploiter, CLT 100 territories during JUL.  The low CLT 
     helps keep upgrade prices down as does zero WEL.] 
      
     Occasionally, an exploiter will send its full army to 
     Shinano along with the PRD and infantry.  Doing so will 
     allow the upgrades stored in Shinano to be reassigned to 
     the exploiters.  When the exploiter territory is 
     captured, Shinano will recapture it, imprinting a fresh 
     near zero rank as the army returns back home. 
      
     In this model, a sixth territory is advised.  This sixth 
     territory will be the rank holder (the place where the 
     army that cleared out North Shinano and West Shinano 
     will end up).  Likely, it will sit unused or perhaps be 
     dedicated entirely to INF recruitment?  It also can be
     used as a resource dump of PRD and upgraded units.
      
     This is my favorite idea because it can be gradually 
     accomplished and happens in my own local area.  Takeda 
     controlled exploiter territories encase the zero rank 
     territory.  This model is secure and versatile.  Any 
     attack on an exploiter territory can be handled by 
     retreating to Shinano and then sent back to recapture.  
     And all exploiter territories have at least one other 
     exploiter adjacent.  Help is always nearby and the other 
     exploiters could re-imprint a near zero on the lost 
     territory if that is more convenient than doing via 
     Shinano.  And if Musashi is chosen as the sixth 
     territory to park the rank, all territories will have 
     TWO helper neighbors (not considering the zero rank 
     territory as a helper). 
      
      
      
     *LEG530 
     Starting a plan requires some resources 
      
     I have found that reaching my envisioned plan takes 
     time.  Even though I have a good plan for EVENTUALLY 
     making high LRB Exploits, my idle territories need 
     something to do.  Without some kind of minimal 
     resources, their time is wasted.   
      
     The easiest way to start the game is to do several 
     exploits from Kai and Shinano before enacting any plan.  
     This will give both territories something to do if they 
     are deprived of an army.   
      
     Shinano has no LRB Exploits above rank 15, so the zero 
     rank is safe in Shinano.  However, Kai has two suitable 
     exploits.  Use Suruga/Imagawa rank 15 if you want to 
     keep rank zero in Kai or Sagami/Hojo rank 23 if you want 
     the larger income.  Suruga gives $632 and 456PRD per 
     month and Sagami gives $968 and 700PRD.  [Shinano’s best 
     exploit is on rank 12 Kozuke/Uesugi at $506 and 365PRD.] 
      
     If you choose to preserve the rank zero in Kai, you can 
     use Shinano to start building rank by attacking North 
     Shinano.  Once the ranked army gets going, you can 
     transfer the rank zero into Shinano and then switch 
     Kai’s LRB Exploits to the more profitable Sagami/Hojo.  
     When and how you do it is according to your plans. 
      
     [Caution: if you send more than 20 UET from Shinano to 
     LRB Exploit Kozuke/Uesugi, then you will capture the 
     castle.  If you want to build resources in Shinano, you 
     must not send the full force or the full force less 
     10HDQ left behind to hold.  See Leg450.] 
      
     I want to pause to give you an important consideration: 
     both Kai and Shinano cannot be captured by the AI around 
     them, not if Kai and Shinano resist.  The armies nearby 
     do not have enough troops to overwhelm Kai’s or 
     Shinano’s army.  The maximum attack muster is 70%.  
     Shinano and Kai have enough units to LRB Exploit defend 
     for a turn 6 AI retreat.  Hence, you have sufficient 
     time to gather resources before sending the armies away, 
     if you wish.  [But this may not be true forever.  AI 
     armies upgrade units and recruit more.  Yet, if you 
     spend your time doing LRB raids, the unit spoils you get 
     will outpace the AI rate of gain.  Also, territories 
     that are raided lose their monthly action.] 
      
     Another advantage of taking time to do several exploits 
     before starting a plan is the gain of unit spoils 
     (BUT076).  Shinano won’t get much from the small army in 
     Kozuke, but Kai will get a decent amount from Suruga and 
     a slightly larger award from Sagami.  The random muster 
     size will determine how many AI units are sent to 
     battle.  You get 10% of a random AI unit type. 
      
     One early game goal is raising the YLD of one territory 
     so that you can sell PRD.  With Kai and Shinano, the 
     best you can sell PRD is $2.  Even so, $2 sells are a 
     random occurrence, unreliable.  It takes $3280 and $3200 
     to raise YLD to 100 in Shinano and Kai, respectively, at 
     the $40/YLD 1X rate (TM162).  Kai will have the gold to 
     get to YLD 97 after three turns of LRB Exploit on 
     Sagami.  In six turns of LRB Exploit on Kozuke, Shinano 
     can get to YLD 97.  Alternately, you can send Kai’s 
     resources to Shinano after three turns of Sagami raids 
     and then Shinano can get to YLD100.  As the more 
     profitable exploiter, Kai can keep on exploiting while 
     Shinano does territory improvements. 
      
     [If you did send Kai’s resources to Shinano, you could 
     also send excess units.  As LEG436 mentions, Kai only 
     needs 23 UET to keep exploiting Sagami (and 15 UET for 
     Suruga).  Shinano can then send the army to capture 
     Kozuke or risk rank blowback to try to capture North 
     Shinano in one turn (remember, Shinano holds the rank 
     zero).] 



     *LEG534 
     Attacking AI territories for rank 
      
     As LEG404 suggests, eliminating a few AI lords gives the 
     space needed for LRB Exploit to maneuver: giving away 
     territories to split forces or for imprinting near zero 
     rank clones for exploit. 
      
     A ranked territory has another purpose besides clearing 
     out single territory AI lords.  It can also be used to 
     kill troops in AI lords with multiple territories.  If 
     you LRB Exploit capture a territory like Kozuke/Uesugi, 
     for instance, the army in Kozuke will transfer to 
     Echigo.  The required Army Power to LRB Exploit goes up 
     as a result.  But if you were to kill those troops in 
     the relatively weak rank 12 Kozuke, you would prevent 
     the escalation of Echigo/Uesugi’s AP. 
      
     After capturing Kozuke, a ranked army could capture 
     Musashi for the same reason as Kozuke: to keep refugees 
     from merging with Sagami/Hojo’s army.  Furthermore, 
     Musashi is a great place to store a ranked army.  After 
     gaining Musashi, if West Shinano/Kiso and North 
     Shinano/Murakami had already been eliminated, there 
     would be no immediate need for a ranked army.  The 
     troops could be reallocated to LRB Exploit raids. 
      
     There is one tremendous drawback, however.  The FIT in 
     Sagami will go up to .4525.  The FIT of Sagami starts at 
     .244.  I believe the game designers gave Sagami this 
     below average FIT score to make Hojo less imposing -- to 
     give the player a fighting chance.  I don’t think the 
     same downscaling was done to Echigo/Uesugi. 
      
     A similar increase in FIT happens at Echigo,  though not 
     as big a relative change.  It is because of the change 
     in FIT that you need to be aware of what capturing 
     Kozuke or Musashi will do for future LRB Exploits 
     against Echigo or Sagami.  Early game, the small 
     increase in LRB Exploit difficulty at Echigo is 
     inconsequential: you probably weren’t raiding there and 
     it will be some time before you do.  In contrast, Kai 
     exploiting Sagami/Hojo is a high reward early game 
     resource supplier.  Having this disrupted could hurt.  
     Another difference between the two is that it is easier 
     to split Uesugi’s army to make exploit easier.  
     Splitting the army makes up for increasing the FIT 
     because FIT goes down again when a second territory is 
     gained.   
      
     However, it is less appealing to give Kai away to 
     Sagami/Hojo.  Shinano is usually my rank zero territory, 
     but I can work around that by storing the zero rank in
     Kozuke.  Thus, I could exploit Kai/Hojo with Shinano.
     The only other easy to acquire territory to use as an
     exploiter on Kia/Hojo would be West Shinano.  However,
     if I had a near zero clone in West Shinano, I get better
     returns exploiting Mikawa/Matsudaira than I do with Hojo
     (28RR instead of 23RR). 
      
     However, if you were holding the rank zero in Kai so 
     that Kai was exploiting Suruga/Imagawa instead of 
     Sagami, capturing Musashi incurs no disruption.  I 
     mention this to highlight some of the advantages of 
     using Suruga to get resources.  The exploits at Suruga 
     are roughly two thirds of what they are at Sagami, but 
     there are compensating factors. 
      
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