Shinuyama Unbalanced?
 

I've been tooling around with Shinuyama recently and it seems like they don't really have any weaknesses. Most of your national troops aren't that great (some have raiding potential though), but if you take good scales it isn't hard to mass the excellent Dai Bakemonos, who are great offensive units. Not only do you have great sacred combat mages as well in the form of Bakemono Sorcerers, they're recruitable every where and aren't that expensive. To top things off, you get great national summons like Shura and oni that you can turn into very strong thugs.

Really your biggest problem will be getting things rolling in the early game, but kappas are more than enough to fight the vast majority of independents and are easy to mass. A few turns early on expanding with kappas and then getting a second castle up if your cap doesn't have good resources and you're on your way to victory.

Any thoughts? I think balance wise the sorcerers should be made cap only (you still have ubas for everywhere else). I'm not too sure about the Dai Bakemono since them being made cap only would really screw up the nation, but they could need a small boost to their cost so they're not as easy to mass even with good scales.

Re: Shinuyama Unbalanced?
 

Shinuyama is not unbalanced.

Re: Shinuyama Unbalanced?
 

But EA Miclan clearly is (not to be confused with EA Mictlan as I learned to my dismay).

Re: Shinuyama Unbalanced?
 

Thanks

Re: Shinuyama Unbalanced?
 

You should have seen LA Mictlan in my previous game. Their S9W9F9 bless makes my current army look like weak sauce. Though in that game I did at least learn the value of Horrors. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I've played one SP game with Shinuyama and fought a war against them in MP. So I'm not an expert on them, but I have some knowledge. They seem like a well rounded nation, with several good facets but nothing overwhelming. I think their main weakness is in the early game, where they lack the bless power of MA Ermor and the like. From my memory, Kappas are too expensive for expansion, though they do give you the option to enter the water. In the mid game, Shinuyama becomes more deadly as their mages bring out battlefield enchantments (Flaming Arrows, Strength of Giants, Legions of Steel, Weapons of Sharpness) which turn even bandits into mini-thugs. In the late game they have hammers and decent forging options, but aren't really setup to make clams, and don't have the strong Air or Astral magic that you really want in the late game.

Re: Shinuyama Unbalanced?
 

I dunno. Their national troops are nice, and their mages aren't bad either, but they don't have any really high paths in many of the stronger groups, and there are plenty of nations that have just as good national troops.