Hello Neoseekers,

The following is a method for achieving any level of tactical mastery desired for any single character in-game. It relies on controlling multiple people at once initially to subsequently 'train' the character in question, one staged battle at a time, getting mastery of many tactics from level 1 to M within a relative measure of half a season under optimal conditions (and thus, all tactics within two years). You'll even get a nice money or fame bonus if you wish.

First off, it's an informal method employed only by one person I know of, designed below to mirror a series of thought exercises of the in-game character's over some months or few years' time and thus to be as unobstructive a method to one's normal play as possible. If anyone has any suggestions to improve upon it or criticism about any negative or disagreeable aspects it may harbor I would be eager to read them and respond to your suggestions.

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1) Create your new character, either with the tactics you wish to train already in possession, or if anything is lacking, simply make him a friend of a special character or characters who have sufficiently high levels of the missing skills. For example, William Cody and Albert Einstein cover the full gamut of tactics except for Magic sufficiently high (for which Ben Franklin can supplement).

2) Since you can control up to eight officers at once, make a complementary number of junk officers with any skills (preferably Cavalry included for battle travel speed, as seen below). For instance, if you create a character and use Albert Einstein as a teacher, create six other junk characters, preferably with the Cavalry skill.

3) Set your character's birth year to the selected scenario's. Be sure to make all others' birth dates similar or the same, and ensure the teachers have compatibility with stated character (set their friend to you, and you to your favorite historical character or chosen alignment)

4) Select new game and choose yourself, your teacher(s) (if applicable), and the supplementary junk officers. In the New Force subscreen, make yourself a new ruler in an empty town with your teachers as subordinates, and the extras in another force adjacent to you (all scenarios besides 263 AD have at least one pair of adjacent empty cities), with any miscellaneous ruler chosen. Begin the game.

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This message was edited by seclorus on Oct 09 2008.

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5) Save your game often, and after each battle or month. Hold down the L2 button to bypass any unwanted batteries of text.

6a) The game will begin in a council session for either your or the junk officers' (enemy) force. If it is the enemy force, continue to step 7a, then return here once indicated. When the council is yours, initiate battle with them, taking the right type of troop to train the desired tactic(s) you choose in that battle (foot or horse for blue and red tactics, depending on if you wish to train spearwall or trample as well, and crossbow for orange), 10 or so soldiers (yes, ten), and no other units. Respond in the enemy force by sending only one unit, maxed out in soldiers of any type (realistically only hundreds will be needed). Authorize all confirmation messages. In the War Council, choose the fastest travel type available for your force, and Intercept for the enemy's. Proceed with step 6b.

6b) You are now in battle, your troop of ten or tens against thousands, and you will win every time so long as: i) you do not initiate a [Normal] attack upon the enemy or [Taunt] them, and ii) never have the enemy attack or taunt you. The goal is never to be captured early, and thus to use all or nearly all available TP over the 30 turns on tactics, as well as training tactics on favorable terrain for the highest success rates. Begin the battle by moving the enemy closer to your character, keeping him stationed on favorable terrain for your chosen tactic or tactics for the duration of the battle, selecting the [Wait] command once there. For your character, make your way directly toward him alongst the shortest map route. Begin at once, when TP (tactic points) is available, to use your tactic against him, never [Normal]-ly attacking him. Do this for the duration of the battle until it is (presumably) lost and your character returns. Quit the council session and proceed to 7a if not already complete. Go to step 8 once done with both.

7a) When you are in the enemy force's council session, the non-ruler characters' turns will come before the ruler's. Thus each playable character and up to 6 others (if there are five others for the ruler's turn) can partake in gaining you experience points, in turn. For each individual, send them to battle alone with max troops and preferably horses. Respond to them by selecting just yourself, 10 or so troops (once again, yes, ten), and the correct type of unit for your tactic(s) to be trained. In the War Council, give them the fastest travel strategy, while employing Intercept or Barrage (if applicable) for your own unit. Proceed with step 7b.

7b) You are now in battle, your force of ten or tens against thousands, and you will win every time if you do the following: i) never [Normal] attack or [Taunt] the enemy, and ii) never have the enemy normal attack or taunt you. The goal is to stay on the outpost as long as possible to garner 5 extra TP a turn, using all this extra TP and favorable surrounding terrain to train your tactic(s) upon the enemy. Begin by moving the enemy toward you and keeping your guy on the outpost. Once the enemy is near, station him on terrain that most garners tactical success for your respective tactic, and repetitively use that tactic whenever available against him. When the battle is over, repeat with each enemy player in turn until that season's Council is complete. You will see your tactical expertise soar under this method. Quit the council session and read through section 6a if you have not already done so. Go to step 8 when you have completed both.

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This message was edited by seclorus on Oct 09 2008.

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8 ) The method is essentially complete; it only need be repeated each council session to see your character to mastery in a matter of months game-time. What follows is simply how to spend the civilian stages optimally, and the way I usually finish the method off to make for the least obstructed game possible with said selected character. Section 9a discusses how I learn new tactics from my chosen teachers, while section 9b discusses how I spend the enemy force's time and why, and 10 addresses how I finally finish them (and my teachers) off and start anew - essentially to seem as if I never employed this method and began with a naturally talented character.

9a) In the character's civilian stages interim to training, visit your teacher(s) and hold plenty of banquets for them to get up to Loyal level in your relationship standing. You should begin with Trusted if you have their friend set to you. Do absolutely no domestics. Generally I host 4 or so banquets for them in that very first month, then visit them. I do the same in subsequent months, but once Loyal is established I save, then talk strictly about Military Matters, reloading each time they do not teach a tactic. Once Loyal, I also quit throwing banquets for them and spend all available time in the Barracks farming +50 or so tactical experience for my level 1 tactics, using the aforementioned reloading method. If you control your teachers, have them visit you/throw banquets as well, whilst training the less-mastered tactics you wish to share with the main character.

9b) During the enemy's civilian stages, I usually have them pillage another nearby city repeatedly, never mine, for the purpose of keeping enough supplies for my army to march effectively (even with ten at a time), as well as staving off infamy once I wind up killing them, as is explained shortly.

10) The last step in the process is for restoring the game to favorable conditions, which means either starting as if the whole training process never happened and your character imagined all these battles (though minor amounts of fame are inevitable, in the order of 1312 as per my last attempt at gaining 3M's and 4V's within 9 months), or setting up your character with better initial conditions than he or she would have otherwise in regards to fame, infamy, relationships, and/or money. Simply have two last battles against your set-up enemies, where in the first you send only your teachers with minimal troops and they are subsequently captured and executed; and in the second you march the enemy to your city with minimal troops to be captured and executed. If you wish to start a fresh game after this excess bloodshed, simply hold down the L1, L2, R1, R2, Select, and Start buttons between monthly phases to deselect all characters, and repeat to select your character back. All relationships will be reset, fame kept, and money reinitialized to 200. If you'd like to keep some money and continue onward, withdraw all your force's funds from the castle and quit the force. If infamy is what you wish, do not pillage with the enemy; instead make them famous computer counterparts and/or preside in a populous city, and then kill them. You also have the option now of making a sworn brother or permanent confidant of the teacher if you choose to keep him alive, or sworn enemies of the others if you kill any of their familial associates (by setting up kin relationships amongst them at initialization.)

--) Your character is complete, and you have just learned how to achieve tactical mastery.

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This message was edited by seclorus on Oct 09 2008.

By email request, here is an example of this method working under optimal conditions. I began with a created officer named Isaac Newton, no teachers, and the below before and after stats:

Isaac Newton

General Info: Birth Year is 234, began in 249 Scenario, 1 year spent in training exactly. Began the game with Main Character force in Wu Du, 6 Junk Officers in a force in Tian Shui, and 1 Computer Player (Jiang Wei) for the item.

That year saw my character observing facilities for the additional orange skills, buying a medicine book, and having Jiang Wei give me his +8 INT text. After the training period, I manually trained my Charge (1) in Liang and Qing to acquire Cavalry and Infantry, respectively, to its total of Charge (4). Here it is reported before as being Charge (4); this took some 6 months afterward through saving/reloading.

STATS BEFORE 1 YEAR OF TRAINING:

W: 71
I: 100
P: 98
C: 70

Skills:
Red: None
Orange: Trade
Blue: Persuade, Reverse, Taunt, Confuse, Rumor
Green: Bowmen, Navy, Scout
Gold: Weather

Tactics:
Charge (4), Spearwall (3), Torrent (3), Blaze (1), Magic (2), Firearrow (4), Bombard (3), Arrowstorm (1), Harass (1)

STATS AFTER 1 YEAR OF TRAINING:

W: 74
I: 108 (I had Jiang Wei give me my Principia back)
P: 98
C: 70

Skills:
New Skills: Plan, Plow, Invent, Genius, Medicine

Tactics:
Charge (4), Spearwall (V), Torrent (4), Blaze (V), Magic (M), Firearrow (4), Bombard (V), Arrowstorm (M), Harass (M)

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Those are the results.

very nice work. You might want to consider making it an FAQ as well.