Sengoku Rance:Commander Tips

Summary table
Different troop types with the same stats will work out differently. The troop type bonus for each of the four battle parameters is ranked in the manual from A+ to C.

Note that various costs may be affected by other factors such as items or satisfication bonuses.
 * Max troop size is calculated as follows: $$(4 + Provinces) * 100 * diffculty*ratio$$, where diffculty is 0.5 for normal, 1 for one star, 2 for two stars, and 3 (not 5) for five stars.


 * Recruit cost goes up by 20 when troop size is 500~999. Recruit cost goes up by 40 more (base + 60) when troop size is 1000~?.


 * Mage Spell Ignore Foot Soldier's GUARD Defense (Deal Full Damage as if no Guard)

Bushi
The Bushi is the classical samurai. They are the masters of swordsmanship, and focuses on offensive skills. At low difficulty levels, they are a typical player's main source of damage. However, as they often receive conterattacks from enemy troops they face, their usage becomes severely limited when the enemy greatly outnumber them, as often is the case for higher diffculties.

Important Skills: Important Captains:
 * 力を貯める (Gather strength) - Passive skill, raises damage by 70%. By spending one move, all your future attacks are stronger (unless an enemy tactician removes it).
 * 迂回突撃 (Flank Charge) - Special attack, prevents counterattack. While it costs two moves, it keeps your troops unharmed to perform the next attack.  Especially useful for slow Bushi units (if they weren't going to use up their moves anyways).
 * 手加減攻撃 (Light Attack) - Special attack, chance to capture is increase, 0.2 damage. Any enemy being hit by this attack (even if this isn't the attack that finished them off) have a higher chance to be captured at the end of the battle (you still need to defeat their unit).
 * 武将突撃 (Captain Charge) - Special attack, captain attacks, then unit attacks, cannot be counterattacked. Usually the captain's first hit can deal around 300 damage.  If the enemy is behind a defensive barrier, it will only block out the captain's initial attack, and not the unit's followup attack.  Unfortunately the captain's and the unit's attacks don't reduce guard rating saparately.
 * Uesugi Kenshin is a very useful unit. Her passive skill Military God's Aura (軍神の威光) results in oppnents having one or two less moves in a battle and gives a battle result bonus. She has a move that is similar to the Rance Attack as well!

Foot Soldier
The Foot Soldier constitutes the main force of most armies. What they lack in quality, they make it up in quantity. Foot Soldiers are the cheapst to heal, the cheapest to expand, and grows the fastest. Their guard ability allows them to cover other allies while their defense is doubled.

Building the Foot Soldier Training School in Mamushi Oil Field lets all foot soldier units of yours grow by 5 soldiers per turn automatically, and 5 soldiers per special visit to the school.

The leaders of foot soldier units are spear-wielding Bushis who can also guard their allies in singles/dungeon fights.

Important Skills:
 * 味方ガード (Ally guard) - Support skill, increases the probability of blocking an attack on an ally of the same row by (int*20)%, defense is doubled. This skill defines the foot soldier's purpose of existence.
 * 味方ガード改 (Ally guard+) - Support skill, increases the probability of blocking an attack on an ally of the same row by (int*30)%, defense is doubled. An improved version of the previous skill.  A foot soldier with even crappy int stats can become a semi-decent blocker with this skill.
 * 全体ガード (All guard) - Support skill, increases the probability of blocking an attack on any ally by (int*10)%, defense is doubled. This skill allows you to place only one foot soldier and still have both the front and back rows covered.  Due to the low guard rating of this skill, it is highly recommended to be used with the next skill.
 * 強化初期ガード (Strengthen Initial Guard) - Passive skill, starts battle at 120% row guard rating.
 * 反撃率アップ２ (Counterattack Rate Up 2) - Passive skill, counter attack damage is tripled. Using this skill, combined with a high attack stats, allows the act of guarding to effectively serve as regular attacks.  Enemy Bushi units can easily attack themselves to death.

Important Captains:
 * Shibata Katsuie - While he does not have any unique skills, his stats are are above-average and can be improved through a satisfaction bonus.
 * Maeda Toshiie - He can improve dramatically after going through a status improvement and can also be improved through a satisfaction bonus.

Musketeer
The Musketeer units are the offensively most powerful units, pretty much able to ignore their opponent's defense completely (except foot soldiers in guard mode). Their guns are already loaded when going into battle, and they are often among the first units to strike a deadly blow against their enemies. The downside is most of them are only capable of firing one shot in battle, and even those who can fire multiple shots tend to have a long reloading time for their guns. They are also extremely vulnerable to enemy attacks, so make sure to cover them with a good foot soldier unit. Due to the novelty of muskets, musketeer units are expansive to expand, and grows rather slowly.

Building the Musketeer Training School in Tamba lets all musketeer units of yours grow by 3 soldiers per turn automatically (furthur expanding the training school increases the growth rate to 5 soldiers per turn).

Important Skills:
 * 引き付け (Get closer) - Support skill, boosts attack by 50%. This skill takes zero moves, and significantly boosts the attack power.  You'll probably only get one or two shots, might as well make them count as much as possible.
 * 貫通射撃 (Penetration Shot) - Special attack, hits front and back rows, 50% damage. While the net damage you have dealt is the same, the penetration effect means your attack won't be redirected by a food soldier's guard, and will hit who you intend to hit.

Important Captains:
 * Yuzuhara Yuzumi - The only musketeer unit who has the "射撃＋狙撃 (Shoot + Snipe)" skill which is capable of instant-killing enemies.

Monk
Monk is a utility class. They are comparatively cheap to expand, and are completely healed at the beginning of each turn, making them cheap to build into quantities to fight with (many have self-healing too, producing self-sufficient fighters). Most of them are capable of completely removing the guard of enemy foot soldiers, allowing the rest of the party to hit their intended targets. Finally, certain monks are capable of restoring movement of allies, allowing other party members to pull off more big attacks.

Important Skills:
 * 活動転換 (Convert action) - Support skill, restores one action for ally. This is often combined with powerful skills that use up all flags for repeated fire.  And because of the combination with skills that use up all moves, the upgraded version Convert Action 2 is often more wasteful and less desirable.
 * ガード解除 (Remove Guard) - Special attack, removes all guard status of enemies. The signature monk skill that can greatly change the flow of battle.

Important Captains:
 * 性眼 Seigan - His special attack, "死神の鎌 (Death's Scythe)" reduces all enemy troops by 25% of their maximum, producing devastating damage when the enemy greatly outnumbers your forces.
 * 魔窟堂野武彦 - With a 9 in attack and 8 in defense, he can be used as a Bushi who self-heals fully at the beginning of each turn. A well-timed Convert Actions 2 allows an ally to keep fighting after throwing out a major skill.
 * 卑弥呼 Himiko - With 6 moves and 7 speed, she can rapidly remove enemy guards in battles. In dungeons she has six shots of Convert Action to allow allies to use their powerful attacks.

Knight
The Knights of Leazas have the offensive strength comparable to the Japanese Bushi, and the ability to guard their allies. The knights maintain a fit and healthy body making them very cheap to heal also.

Important Skills:
 * 親衛隊突撃 (Royal Guard Charge) - Special attack, when enemy has more troops, deal double damage. Even though knights face counterattack just like bushi, the double-damage dealt can be worth it.

Important Captains:
 * Reira

Miko
With the ability to heal your troops and do 10% troop damage to all enemies, mikos are a versatile unit.

Important Skills:
 * Miko healiing skills: a very useful ability, especially when facing heaving hitting opponents.
 * Miko's Storm: a devastating attack that can do 10% damage (based on opponent's max troop size) and 30% if you use Natori. In higher starred games, this skill can turn the tide of a battle and soften the opponents to boot!

Important captains:
 * Ashikaga Supergod: A very powerful character as you can see from his stats. Just kidding.  If you do recruit him, just talk to him once so you can get the Emperor Ring then fire him.
 * Natori: With the ability to do 30% of max troop size damage, she can be very crucial in a castle siege.
 * Chinu: Has an attack that damages all ooponents by half their total health.  Her main weakness is that she is a bit slow, so she can be hit multiple times before she unleashes the attack.  To make up for this, she can get hit twice by ninjas (and only them) before her preparation is cancelled.  Another weakness is that the attack counts as a physical attack, so footsoldiers with guard up will get less damage.

Ying Yang
With the ability to hit mutlitple units at once, hit a single opponent, and to create a barrier to protect one or all your troops, the yin-yang is probably the most versatile troop you can have.

Important Skills:
 * (防御式神) Defense shikigami: A barrier is created, allowing a unit to not get any damage. A captain charge will do damage to your troop, even with this on a troop.  The reason for this is that the first attack by the captain will break the barrier and then the troops will then attack, damaging your troops.  Assassination skills (gale force, assassination, snipe+shoot) will go through the barrier, possibly killing the captain in the process.
 * (全体防御式神) All defense shikigami: This skill creates a barrier for all the troops.
 * (式神) Shikigami: A spell that hits all troops, ignoring the defense of the troops.  This is very useful as damage isn't reduced when a footsoldier has his guard up.  The major weakness that if a ying yang is slow, it will take a long time before his/her turn is up and it will take a full rotation before he/she unleashes the attack.
 * (鬼を召喚) Oni Summoning: An attack that hits one unit.  A useful attack as it is a magic attack and ignores defense as well as the fact that it doesn't require penetration.

Important captains:
 * Hojo Soun: Has a very devastating version of Oni Summon, with very good stats to boot!
 * Omachi: Probably the best ying yang, she has two all-unit attacks. The first one doesn't require preparation, while the second one requires prep, but is very powerful.  Her second attack requires two ninja ttacks before she loses her preparation.