[Pablomatic]

Hi all. I'm a pretty new player, though I've played SP extensively. Can't wait to try MP when I get a chance.

I like LA Jomon. Guess I like the Ninjas, the Summons, and the Heroes it has.

First a specific question: The unit description for the two types of sacred Samurai (can't remember names) says they don't like fighting alongside one another. Does anyone know if this translates into an actual game effect? If not, those troops will just have to get over it because I like to combine them in squads together to improve morale.

Second, I'd like any advice (complete guides?) anyone can give me for Jomon. I've been going with an imprisoned Celestial General pretender, w/ A4, E4, D4, and +1 to all scales except heat/cold and 7 dominion.

I don't care for the death bless, but want to have D4 for all the juicy Jomon national summons. Seems a waste to have magic paths less than 4 on a pretender. Even a weak bless is better than none.

Is it possible to successfully get away with an imprisoned pretender in MP? With anyone other than Vanheim/Jotenheim (who don't seem to have any weaknesses) I mean?

I'm sure someone will tell me that I need production +3, but it bugs me to have negative scales in anything. I want luck to get my heroes, production for resources, the growth for supplies and people, and order to cut down on random events plus for gold. Of course I end up with too much gold and not enough resources. Always things to do with the gold though. Guess I have trouble being a "power gamer."

I usually make my starting commander my prophet, then Daimyos if I recruit any more non-mage commanders (hopefully the heroes show up so I don't have to).

Problems I'm running in to:

No shields on melee troops. Often my archers do more damage to my samurai and ashigaru than they do to the enemy. I usually set archers on "fire archers," but in those cases where the enemy has no archers, or after they route, my archers fire into any ongoing melee and do at least as much damage to my guys as to the enemy. Ok, I can recruit heavy infantry indies for this. What else?

National troops have trouble with crossbows, but also especially heavy cavalry. Jomon cavalry isn't that impressive.

What spells should I be going for. I have some idea, but does anyone have any advice for specific uses of mages with specific path combinations?

I usually research evo3, thau2, alt4, const6, conj6+ in that order.

Looking forward to any responses.