Shinuyama: in the shadows, on the battlefield, under the waves

[MaxWilson]

Why is it important to protect them from all the elements? Poison resistance seems pretty unimportant to me, and depending upon the enemy you might be able to drop one of fire/shock/cold resistance.

Banefire crossbows are far inferior to the spell. The Banefire spell has 9x the area and does massive damage to the central square.

-Max

[dirtywick]

The crossbow works well enough whether it's inferior to the spell or not and I'd rather be casting other spells.

[Omnirizon]

I don't think the crossbow or spell items replace the spells themselves, that's not the point.

The point is that it supplements spells with solid, low fatigue, and quickenable artillery. Shinuyama has a couple of great commanders just for holding these items and firing/zapping them from the backline. Additionally, they have the natural resources and paths to forge these items. Boots of Quickness, Staffs of Corrosion, Wands of Wildfire, Banefire Crossbows; all require gems and paths that Shin has naturally, and can thus get an economy started in consistently.

[Amhazair]

You mention the great enchantress as having A/E/S magic, but A is CBM only. Other than that an intresting read. I'll come back to it if/when I play Shinuyama.

[VedalkenBear]

Can't say much other than very good guide. I'll definitely look to playing them some more.

(Note: My issues with Shinuyama and Yomi are entirely thematic.)

[Omnirizon]

thanks for everyone's input. note: i've made some suggested updates; nothing major, but added more suggestions on magic and research.

also, I've added a couple new pretender builds: S4 Wyrms. Shinuyama can afford these while keeping scales good for them, and they provide everything they need -- high dominion, the right scales, out-of-the-box SC, and the S4 path to forge the elemental and omni path boosters (these boosters are about all they require for a complete and strong array of magical talent). Additionally, S4 on a Wyrm makes them even better SCs. These pretenders are strong all game long for them; and very safe (unlike the Ghost King).

[JimMorrison]

Good choice, I'm a big fan of the S4 Wyrm myself. 8 ) In fact, your guide is making me want to do a SP Shin game, just so I can play around with them a bit - I've never put in the effort to really learn how to play them effectively.

[ano]

I'm playing Shinuyama currently so I'll comment this a bit later but what I have to say now is about Kappas:
First, they're absolutely inefficient above the waves as they get 5 fatigue per combat round.
Second, they're really cool underwater and tear almost everything apart but die from poison very quickly (very orthe it happens after battle). It requires very thorough placement to use them efficiently and not gather empty turtle shells after battle. They should strike first and kill as much as possible in first combat round. Then you'll have a chance not to lose them to tritons or atlantian spearmen.
Third, they have rather poor MR 8 so you don't want to use them when magic starts ruling the batlefield

[ano]

Also, Kitsune is a very interesting mage as she not only has N3 but also 3 AWES 50% randoms plus one AWEN 25%. You were probably very unlucky to get one with only N3))
So it's a good chance for Shinuyama to diversify into astral and air and also forge Moonvine bracelets. However it's a BIG random and I'm still not sure it's worth the cost.

[ano]

Also, the bandits are really not so bad as you describe as they have decent morale (10 compared to 8 of Bakemono-sho) and armor which other stealthy Shinuyama units don't get.
If you have resources, Bandit archer is a very good troop choice because he not only gets a bow but also a good melee weapon (Wakidzashi) and so you may use them in different ways in different fights. Also, bandits make definitely better raiders than Bakemono-sho because their morale is higher (very important for raids), their armor and weapons are better and the lack of mountain/forest walking is not important while moving at the enemy territory because you move 1 province/turn anyway.

Bandit commander is really a useless leader though, because Bakeomono scout is better in each and every aspect. Probably, Bandit leader was not so bad when Shinuyama did not get a scout with 40 leadership for 25 gold. A perfect scout, btw! This scout makes Bakemono Shaman almost useless while earlier (until 3.15 patch when Bakemono Scout appeared) he was primarily used for leading stealthy squads.
Also, it's worth mentioning that Shinuyama is one of the few nations that doesn't suffer from the lack of commanders early on. Both their starting commanders have good leadership (80 and 40). This is really important for start.