I'm playing Ashikaga on the Orania map with 14 difficult AIs (indies at 5). So far so good. I just captured the Marignon mausoleum (on turn 12). Marignon's home was only 3 provinces away, so they were pretty well doomed. Ulm is 5 away, so they're next.
It's a great deal of fun playing with these historical type units, but compared to my Favorites of Jotun or R'lyeh, it's definitely slower going.
Here are a few early observations:
- The starting troops in the army lacks a scout. I don't think it would hurt play balance to give players one to begin with.
- The Jotuns begin with a giant scout, 8 giants, and a giant commander. By comparison, the Ashikaga starting force is much weaker. You may want to consider increasing the number of samurai to 18-20 from the current 15.
- The yamabushi monk moves 2/11 while ashigaru and samurai move 2/12. The monk, being lightly encumbered and highly trained, should move somewhat faster than the armored troops, 2/13 at least, and preferably 2/14-2/15. By the same token, the ashigaru should be slower (lack of training) and thus move only 2/10. The samurai bowmen should move at least 2/11, if not the same (2/12) as the other samurai.
- The senin master only moves 1/9. The strategic move should be 2. Only moving 1 doesn't make much sense given what the guy is wearing and his familiarity with living outdoors and being close to nature (unless he wastes time stopping frequently to smell the wildflowers). Also, the text description mentions them "wandering in the mountains", yet they have forest, not mountain survival.
- The average Jotun giant costs about the same as two samurai, but is worth the rough equivalent of three samurai in battle. I don't know if there's anything you can do about that (ie: making the samurai tougher and/or deadlier, or lowering their cost) without messing things up in relation to other nations. I just wanted to point it out.
- Any chance that you can get Unwise to make one of his custom shields for Ashikaga in place of the normal Dom-style flag? There are likely dozens of suitable mon (japanese clan symbols) that can be used as the design on the shield.