Sengoku Rance:Free for All

Introduction
The free for all is a gameplay mode that is unlocked after finishing the game once. The free for all mode allows you to play as any country, whilst being at war with all the other countries. In the beginning you will get a short scene explaining why your country goes to war: The Shimazu brothers want to impress Kurohime, Ran is only willing to marry Souun after he unifies japan, the Youkai want to be free of human subjugation, the Mikos are on a quest to return Natori's belly warmer, {C and the Hannys, as we all, do it just for fun...

Free for all is not fair. Some houses start with three provinces, while others have only one. The quality of the initial commanders is also very variable. If you pick a weak house like Akashi or Hara, expect a challenge. There are also custom features to some of the houses.

Changes between this and the normal game
Apart from combat mechanics, the gameplay is extremely stripped down compared to the normal game.


 * There is no satisfaction, loyalty, power ups or other character changes.
 * Units do not increase in size from winning battles.
 * Units do not automatically heal from not acting.
 * There's no declaration of war, you're at war with everyone (unless there's a neutrality agreement, see below)
 * The enemy turn order is mixed up. It's not unusual to see house A attack, then house B, and then house A again during the same turn.
 * Battle preparation is not possible.
 * Covert action is possible, but due to the random turn order it doesn't necessarily prevent all attacks.
 * Most provinces have fewer subareas to conquer, some only a single one.
 * You have only two action fans. Having two commanders with Twin Action King raises this to three.
 * Most units are quite weak, so get used to seeing stats in the 3-5 range.

Some new features were added.


 * You can construct and demolish buildings, one in each province.
 * You can construct barriers in each province.
 * You can make an enemy country temporarily neutral.
 * Certain formerly uncapturable commanders (Ootomo Sourin, etc) may now be captured. Leaders of nations (Yukihime, etc) and other important commanders (Ranmaru, Yamamoto, etc) will also join other houses once defeated.

Barriers
Upgrading the barrier level of a province requires a fixed 10 construction. Max 9, minimum 7. Block enemy attacking during their turn depending on barrier level (higher level less enemy attacking)

Neutrality pacts
You can make an enemy house temporarily neutral (if it has an adjacent province). The cost is 5 negotiation + 3 per previous use. It will initially last for 10(?) turns, and can be extended an addition 2 turns with an action. Neutral houses won't attack you. You can not break the agreement, it must expire over time. If there are no non-neutral houses left on the map the game ends, so be careful so you don't win prematurely. The Demon Army can be made neutral just like any other house.

Buildings
You can build one building in each province. There are several types with different effects. If you control at least 10 provinces you can also upgrade some building types for higher efficiency. Building, upgrading and destroying a building each take one action.


 * Mansion: +1 (+3) troops to each commander.
 * Free market: +3% (+9%) income.
 * Shopping district: +200 (+1000) income.
 * Hospital: Heals 10 (50) troops per commander.
 * Buddha statue: Grants items when enough are constructed (see separate section)
 * Control center: Increases troop limit by 200 (no upgrade)

The base income is national power * 30. Shopping districts are more efficient than markets while your income is low. However, hospitals and mansions are far superior to both. With a full roster of medium-sized units, a single regular mansion produces units worth ~2000 gold per turn. With 15 wounded commanders, a regular hospital can save ~500 gold per turn. (There's also a normal action to heal 25 troops in each unit.) Suggested mix is to have just enough hospitals that you don't have negative cash flow from healing, and the rest as mansions.

Buddha statue effects
Buddha Statues are one of the possible buildings to construct. They provide no benefits on their own, building a certain number of them unlocks specific items. Collecting an item requires an action, and the items must be collected in order. If you destroy a statue it no longer counts, so uncollected items may become locked again. You will not lose items already collected, however.

Example: You build four statues. This unlocks both the emperor ring and power golden bear, but you can only pick up the emperor ring. After you pick up the emperor ring, you can pick up the power golden bear. If you instead destroy one of the statues, the power golden bear becomes locked again (not enough statues) and you cannot collect it. If you raze all the statues, you still keep the ring.

The numbers required for each item are:


 * 2 Statues: Emperor Ring
 * 4 Statues: Power Golden Bear
 * 6 Statues: Popularity Staff
 * 8 Statues: Mysterious Murasame
 * 10 Statues: Oiuchi Fang
 * 11 Statues: Ryuuguu Sword Urashimaru
 * 12 Statues: Uesugi Charge Unit
 * 13 Statues: Half-Gold Statue
 * 14 Statues: Emperor Sword
 * 16 Statues: World's Tactics
 * 18 Statues: Emperor's Headband

Any Buddha Statues beyond 18 have no value as no further items are awarded.

Challenges
This mode contains two challenge battles on the left and right sides of the map.There are two "secret" Clear Game Report achievements for clearing both challenges, but they will show on your report only after you have cleared them. Note that in my game i could conquer every country by the 55th turn but waited until turn 133 to earn money for the challenges, most of your units (except for those used in the 2 first battles) should have around 1800 units. Also note that although I passed the levels a few times, this is based on my playthrough so you may sometimes end up with something a bit different but equally nasty. The reward for both fights is 1 skill book 2 of every kind (including action book). Perhaps the easiest way to build up troops for these challenges is to stock up on level two mansions after cornering your last enemy country. Beyond that several houses have unique bonuses that can increase the troop numbers of certain units every turn. They are Uesugi (Female Warrior units), Hojo (Diviner units), Takeda (Cavalry units), Tanegashima (Musketeer units), Miko Institute (Miko units), Iga (Ninja units), and the Tenshi Sect (Monk units).

'''Challenges count as troop battles, so units fighting in them are exhausted. They will not be able to defend this turn.'''

Campaign of Bunroku
The Campaign of Bunroku challenge (the one on the left side of the map, on the demon army's territory) consists of 8 battles, all except the two last battles aren't very hard, and even the last two aren't as hard as expected. As the enemies stats are very low, the main problem is how to use your units effectively. I'll recommend the number of units for each fight and they will total to 30, however you may not need as many to win depending on the size of your units and their stats/abilities.


 * Fight 1 - 2 Foot soldiers, 1 Warrior. Each of them has 300 hp, and variable action fans/special abilities. Use 1-2 units. A single unit of Warriors at about 1000 can handle this alone easily.
 * Fight 2 - 2 warriors in the front row, and in the back row 1 warrior and 2 archers. Each has 500 troops, and again, they have variable special abilities. Use 2 units.
 * Fight 3 - 5500hp Peasant, 450 hp warrior in front row, and 5500 hp peasant, 500hp archer, and 6500hp archer in the back row which can 1h-KO your weaker units and has a fondness for shooting divines (you can use this to your advantage by bringing a fast diviner and having them shield themselves), but has low action points with only 2 or 3. Use 4 units.
 * Fight 4- 5500hp warrior and 450hp foot soldier in front row, and 3500hp warrior, 3500hp archer, 2000-4000hp diviner in back (Depending on your units you may be able to win even if it launches a shikigami, or you may have to start over). Use 5 units.
 * Fights 5 and 6 are both one 5500hp peasant and one 450 hp foot soldier. Use 2-3 units. If you have a couple decent size (1500+ Warriors) with decent stats they can win by themselves.
 * Fight 7 - 5500hp warrior, 8450hp foot in front row, and 3500 hp warrior, 7500 hp foot soldier, and 5000hp diviner in back row. 6 units. Isoroku or a musketeer with Penetration Shot are excellent at killing/weakening the diviner as they can ignore Foot Soldiers.
 * Fight 8 - Same as fight 7, only an archer instead of a diviner. your very best 6 units. An alternate encounter switches the 3500 warrior to the front and swapping the 5500 warrior with a 2500 hp ninja unit.

Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War challenge (the one on the right side of the map, on the Dokuganryuu house territory) this challenge has 3 very hard fights in the beginning but after them, you are as good as done.

The recommend units here sum to 31 so use 2/3 maximum values, and 1 minimum (probably fight 1). NOTE I have seen fights 4 & 5 in reverse order or both fights with cavalry, there may be other types as well so be ready for anything as those two are the hardest fights in the challenge. Also note that the ninjas you can meet have the Assassination ability so they can be very dangerous.
 * Fight 1 - ninja, warrior, and monk, each with 300 troops. 1-2 units.
 * Fight 2 - two foot soldiers, each with 1000 troops, and a warrior with 800 troops in front row, and a miko with 300 troops in back. 3 units. The miko unit has Battle Rating Down 2.
 * Fight 3 - two foot soldiers, each with 1000 troops in front row and a musket with 800 (This Musketeer always has Special Cannon, thus if possible you want to drop him before he can fire. Fortunately his attack power is relatively low but it can still cripple weaker units) in front, and an archer (8500 troops) and a tactician (500 troops) in back. 5-6 units.
 * Fight 4 - Three ninjas (2000 troops each) in front, and in back a foot soldier (5300 troops), ninja (2000 troops), and a tactician (500 troops) in back. 6 units.
 * Fight 5 - Three cavalry (1700, 1800, and 1000 troops respectively) in front, and a foot (7000 troops), archer (3500 troops), and tactician (500 troops) in back. 6 units, your strongest. One of the cavalry units may have Battle Result Up 1 or 2. Also the archer unit can have Accurate Shots (like Uruza), so it's best to bring units with three or more actions to this fight.
 * Fight 6 - Two Beast types (2000 troops each, weak panda units), and a foot soldier (8000 troops) 3 units. The Beast units are pathetic, they only attack once for next to no damage. You could probably win this one with a single decent Foot Soldier and maybe a Diviner to block the enemy Foot Soldier's attacks.
 * Fight 7 - Foot soldier (9000 troops) in front, three mikos (1000 troops each) in back. 4-5 units. The Foot Soldier is not overly powerful and lacks any potent special so it may be best to target the mikos first. Bear in mind though that this is like attacking a Castle which is the only difficult element to this fight. If you have anyone that boosts preparation (like Kenshin) or can use Battle Result Up/Down then save them for this one.