Daiteikoku:Guides

General Information
The following quick-guide summarizes how to get each character. Depending on the route, not all admirals may be recruitable. Major characters include Sarah, Eliza, and Mary, Katerin, Miya, and Goepe, Retia, Manstein, Rommel, and Goebbels, Dorothy, Carol, Hannah, Koo, and Douglas.

Major Characters

 * Mary Britten: Can be captured in South Africa. HOWEVER, you MUST WAIT until she is sent to South Africa. Two events will happen in London, the 1st event stating that she is going to be sent there, and the 2nd event when she actually leaves. If you do not wait until the 2nd event completes, you will not be able to recruit her. Sink her fleet and then do her event. Mary comes with an unremovable 105 command point AA2 (anti-aircraft) ship


 * Sarah and Eliza Britain: Route 1 - Invade Suez after Eliza is sent there within 3 turns. After capturing Eliza, invade Paris. WAIT for an event to occur with Eliza before invading London. Eliza will persuade Sarah to join Japan after capturing London. Taking the Suez route will will NOT give you Sarah's and Eliza's event unlocks. Route 2 (event unlock route) - Don't invade Suez while Eliza is there. Wait 3 turns.You can still continue invading through Madagascar if you wish, just don't invade Suez until Eliza returns to London in an automatic event. Afterward, invade a territory adjacent to Paris. An event will occur regarding warp gates, which will finish with Sarah and Eliza being recruited, as well as having both of their events unlocked. Sarah comes with an unremovable 210 command point AL2 (anti-laser) ship.


 * Katherine, Mirja, and Goepe: Invade Russia through the north, take Moscow, Kateringrad, Ekaterinburg; then when Empress asks you is Katerin guilty or innocent, say that she's innocent. The three of them will join Japan Army, Soon after that Empire of Aeris will surrender to Gamerica (if you didn't take Arabia and Hawaii). Katherin comes with an unremovable 120 command point ship.


 * Retia and Gobbels: Not recruitable on the Dokutsu route. Do all of Doenitz's events before Germany is defeated. Then, let her leave when she asks you to. After the event, complete Retia's and Ermi's (Doenitz's) events to recruit Retia.


 * El Rommel: Kill Compass in North Africa (he's in Battlefield No.4) and destroy the POW camp. Then do his event to recruit.


 * Eisen Manstein: Wait until he attacks you when invading UHOS. You must have recruited Retia first, then do her "Imperial Conference" event to make his recruiting event available. Do his events to recruit. Comes with an unremovable 180 command point ship.


 * Dorothy Neumann, Blackhorse, and Deganawidah: Joins after defeating Gamerica and doing the "Specio" event (the top event after Washington falls).


 * Carol Kiring: Route 1 (President Revolt Route) - After invading USJ through Kanada, and after President Frank Roose revolts, an event will occur where Douglas saves Carol and sends her to Japan. Do her event afterward to recruit her. Route 2 (CORE Route) - Saveable from CORE by invading USJ WITHIN ONE TURN after being pushed back to Hawaii (one turn later and she is UNRECRUITABLE).


 * Hannah Rock: Must recruit Koo Rosche first. Route 1 (Kanada Route) - After invading USJ through Kanada, President Frank Roose will revolt. Wait until the "One Man Army" system is set up (Gamerica will turn neutral for one turn), then invade Washington. Hannah will then become recruitable through an event. Route 2 (CORE Route) - After invading USJ and activating CORE, invade Chicago X, then do the No Data event.


 * Koo Rosche: Koo will escape to Japan after CORE activates or when the President revolts. Will join you after doing the refugee event.


 * Eagle Douglas: Recruitable ONLY if you invade Kanada before USJ (President Revolt Route). Comes to you after capture of Gamerica.


 * Mau Mau: When invading Kenya, DO NOT sink her fleet. After the battle, she will automatically be recruited. MauMau comes with an unremovable 15 command point ship.
 * Scarlett Tougou: Only recruitable through a non-Japanization playthrough. A certain anti-Japan movement will randomly attack your territories after a couple of automatic events. Have Tougou fight in each one for 2 times. Eventually, she will be captured. Do her event twice to recruit her.

Minor Characters

 * Hanitora: After conquering Beijing from Chuuteikoku (China), do her event. Afterwards, wait until the photographs are spread (1 turn), then conquer the rest of China. Bring the support of all Chinese territories to stable, then wait for an event to happen where Hanitora is captured. Do her event to recruit her.


 * Fukuhara Izumi: Recruitable only on the Japanization Route. Joins automatically with Taira a few turns after accepting the Japanization Plan. Eventually, her cousin Taira will leave and start a rebellion, and Izumi follow him UNLESS you finish her events (three events) before he leaves.
 * Yuubari: To recruit Yuubari, do Tsunami's event where she requests 3000 resources. After a turn (or a few turns, depending on event priority), Hiraga will announce her new invention, and Yuubari will be automatically recruited.


 * Knights Lawrence, Nelson, and Montgomery: Montgomery is only recruitable if you captured Eliza at Suez. Do his event after capturing him at North Africa. Nelson is only recruitable if you chose the Japanization Plan Route, and is captured after destroying his fleet at Arabia. Do his event afterward to recruit him. Lawrence is available only if you recruited Sarah (either route). His event to recruit him becomes available after conquering London.


 * Clione Al-Iman: After the fall of Arabia, pay the 10000 resources to Purupetto to save her, then do her event to recruit her.
 * Kathy Bradley: Invade and destroy her fleet at Micronesia to capture her. Complete two of her events to recruit her.
 * Kuchiki Isabella: After invading Micronesia, an event will occur (eventually) with Isabella talking with her superiors. After that, she will be part of a Gamerican invasion force. Sink her fleet to capture her. DO NOT do her event UNTIL AFTER CAPTURING USJ.


 * Frith Halsey: Invades from Kanada after you discover the second warp gate from Hawaii. Capture her by sinking her invasion force.
 * Lydia: Invade Siberia and sink her fleet to capture her. Do her event to recruit her.


 * Zhukov: Captured upon destroying his fleet during the invasion of Moscow. Recruitable through his event.
 * Muccilini Venice: Not recruitable on the Dokutsu Route. Capture Roma, then do her event to recruit her.

--Do not invade from Spain or you will not be able to recruit any of the Gamericans.
 * Rasshara: Recruitable only through the Japanization Plan Route. Do not invade Malay Tiger until the Japanization Plan is put into effect (star systems at max support turns into sakura symbols). Conquer Malay Tiger within 3 turns after you take over Manila 2000. Recruitable after capturing Malay Tiger.
 * Alfhild: A few turns after the events introducing her, she will randomly attack one of your territories. Destroy her entire invasion force to capture her. Complete two of her events afterward to recruit.

Strategies to help optimize your overall game

 * 1) Waiting is helpful. Scaling is based on star count, not turns.
 * 2) * Enemy troops (with the exceptions of Chun and Yuan) scale based on your star count, so invading a lot early withoout keeping up on your resources will cause you to overextend
 * 3) ** It's almost always better to wait. You will get stronger, your enemies won't. The exception is that before turn 30, not invading Hawaii/Chernob/Arabia can cause the CORE revolt, which will simultaneously reduce recruitable commanders in Gamerica and make them harder to defeat
 * 4) * Tech levels scale on star count as well. This means that you'll have access to the next generation of ships, but if you expand too aggressively, you won't have the tech to research them
 * 5) ** Furthermore, you have to research the previous gen to unlock the next gen for most ships.
 * 6) * Building modification costs also scale based on star count. It costs less to change buildings at tech level 1 than it does at tech level 2, etc. So if you're going to change your buildings, do it early on.
 * 7) You can make the game a lot easier by delaying the first disaster at turn 13 and again 26 by controlling fewer than 8 territories. This will delay the first disaster fight until turn 39, and Yokozuna until turn 78, giving you time to prepare for them
 * 8) * you're going to want tech level 4 (conquer 15 star regions) before fighting Yokozuna so that you can use the DD-THNDR-83s and (tech lvl3) Kabuki. With M.Base, 6 kabukis and 7 83s split between Tanaka and Coyote, you can't lose what is one of the hardest fights of the game (the 83s will also help immensely if you use a Femu Beko+weather option)
 * 9) * build an M.Base in M.Tiger (change your fish market into the M.Base to get your fish first). Clearing Yokozuna without an M.Base requires Femu Beko and catching Yokozuna in a territory with special weather events. Try to have both options available to increase the likelihood.
 * 10) * if you don't delay and fight the first disaster on turn 13, you will fight Yokozuna on turn 52)
 * 11) Tougou will become invincible with the "Maki" skill for 1 invasion after you trigger the event "the Cat Whisperer". If you don't select the event, it will automatically happen on turn 10 (note that this is in addition to other start of turn events, it doesn't replace them). You can save Tougo's invincibility for a hard fight by only using him defensively after that.
 * 12) * After Tougou's first Maki invasion, he will have it again for one invasion on any turn that's a multiple of 3. For example, if you first used Maki on turn 7, he'll have it again on turn 9. If you don't use it on turn 9, it will be available again on turn 12, but only once.
 * 13) * Indo Curry, Mongol and Hawaii are all good invasions to use Maki
 * 14) An event about Fugaku appears on turn 3 and expires on turn 8. It's highly recommended to complete this before it expires if you are going to do the non-Japanization route. This will allow you to recruit Mikado+Fugaku who can 1v1 Eazauna and help easily clear 2 other difficult fights
 * 15) * In addition, any ships you equip on Shibagami when you do the last event to recruit Mikado will be duplicated, so you can get things like a 2nd CW-Nubonubo, AM2 or AL2 ship or Clione or other rare ship that you like to use (keep in mind that the second copy only comes much later, so think about what might still be useful later on)
 * 16) Invade Suez within 3 turns after Arabia to avoid the warp gates. This will make your first playthrough a lot easier
 * 17) * if, instead, you want to do warp gates for some reason, then if you're on non-Japanization route, conquer Gamerica or UHOS first so that you don't have to deal with Red Phalanx+Aeris warp gates+Rebels simultaneously
 * 18) Try to invade Hawaii before turn 30 (use Rikori, Maki or Mikado+Fugaku) and then complete the discovery mission 2 event to invade Kanada and prevent the CORE revolt. This will make Gamerica a lot easier to conquer
 * 19) * complete Rikori's first 2 events early in the game (before turn 10) so that you can get her 3rd and 4th events before turn 30. This is because there's a gap between her 2nd and 3rd event that requires a start of turn event to happen. This way, you can use Rikori’s free invasion to take Hawaii long before turn 30.
 * 20) You can make conquering Gamerica even easier by blitzing through to Washington after conquering USJ thereby avoiding the One Man System
 * 21) * this will make unique character unrecruitable (this shouldn't matter on first time playthroughs)
 * 22) If you conquer Gamerica before capturing Arabia or Chernob, Aeris will take over UHOS thereby making UHOS a lot easier to conquer. This is generally really good to do in a first playthrogh, since you can clear the game much more easily and quickly. However, there are downsides to this:
 * 23) * you won't get unique UHOS commanders unless you recruited them ahead of time (not usually important in a first time game)
 * 24) * Ise Shima will be permanently locked if you conquer Washington before another adjacent territory, meaning you can't unlock the Lobster on that playthrough
 * 25) The maximum amount you can reduce your DEV and SHPBLD costs depends on a number of choices you make:
 * 26) * Generic events can only reduce SHPBLD to 55% and DEV to 45%. Unique events can reduce it below 55%, but only if you've already hit the floor (don't do the unique event before the generic event).
 * 27) ** Unique events to reduce SHPBLD permanently:
 * 28) *** by 10% the turn after you conquer 10 stars. This is the beginning of turn event for the "Big Nippon Empire" where Mikado unfurls a scroll.
 * 29) *** by 5% x2 by completing Tougou's events
 * 30) *** by 5% when completing a Purupet event (only available if you reject the triple alliance)
 * 31) *** by 20% with the Ending 6 clear bonus (only on new game+)
 * 32) ** Unique events to reduce DEV permanently:
 * 33) *** by 10% by completing Dr. Hiraga's events
 * 34) * It is generally not recommended to wait for all your generic reduction events to be done before getting a 10th star... this can take a long time... but if you do:
 * 35) ** Keep your star count under 8 instead of 10, so that you can delay Yokozuna
 * 36) ** Try to get Hawaii as one of your 8 territories with Rikori's event before turn 30 to avoid CORE (you can further aim for Kanada to get an amazing income while you wait)
 * 37) ** Try to recruit Mikado+Fugaku by conquering Shikoku so that you can still defeat Eazauna successfully when it appears on turn 43
 * 38) * Theoretically, this means you can reduce DEV to 35%, SHPBLD to 30% on a first game and SHPBLD all the way to 10% on a new game+ (this is not efficient though...)
 * 39) There are some really good fish ships near Japan that you can farm while you're waiting to finish cost reduction events, accrue more resources, let your commanders level up, get the Super Battleship, etc. By letting your enemies retake a territory, you can continually invade and set up new fish markets. The best option is Laguri for Clione (0CP with 90 aicraft), though Rabaul's Manatee and Shikoku's Whale are decent too

Early Game
The early game is characterised by 3 major decision points:
 * 1) Delaying war with Gamerica
 * 2) * Your shipbuiilding cost permanently rises by 10% each time you accept (up to 3 times) and the third time, any territories you control in Chun are given to Gamerica. However, accepting it just once will allow you to get both Hanitora and the Surprise attack.
 * 3) Accepting the triple alliance
 * 4) * There's only 1 known benefit to rejecting the triple alliance, instead of the temporary 10% reduction in SHPBLD costs until turn 30, you can get an event later on to permanently reduce SHPBLD cost by 5%
 * 5) * Otherwise, accepting gets you Doenitz, submarines earlier in the game, a temporary decrease in SHPBLD costs until turn 30 and makes recruitment of Retia, Manstein and El Rommel possible (also a condition for Ultimate Idol route and its unique commanders, but this should be done in a new game+)
 * 6) Accepting the Japanization plan - triggered after conquering Manilla 2K
 * 7) * Japanization route will be slightly easier to manage as you don't have rebel attacks and you get more recruits early on.
 * 8) ** Ending 6 with the -20% shipbuilding is the best clear bonus you can get
 * 9) * Non-Japanization route will give you more money for peaceful territories, which can be useful if you want to buy expensive ships earlier on
 * 10) ** Ending 7 with the Love clear bonus is the best clear bonus you can get

Turn 1

1-2 DD-50s can go a long way over the next few invasions, all the way up to Manila and Micronesia. Get comms boats for 2-3 of your generics, and they can be used as decoys.

Try to minimize spending, since a Prison ship or BB on turn 2 is a more efficient purchase.

Troop distribution: Invasion tips: Building
 * Ozawa's radar skill (first slot) is strong enough that the radar ship is superfluous. Give her 3 DD-50s instead to take down Higuchi (she will deal exactly 99 damage with Tougou in the same field).
 * In general, try not to equip your expensive ships if you can help it - the more expensive the ship, the more it costs to repair if you can't wait for the natural recovery speed
 * Tougou's skill GTac gives a 10% boost to all allies damage in the same starfield (each star has up to 4 starfields where you can assign commanders for a battle)
 * Tougou already has more than enough firepower with the Nagato, you can unequip all the DD-50s from him to give to other commanders.
 * Take 1 DD-50 from Mugen and give it to Keiko. Swap Mugen's remaining DD-50 with Raizou's Thundrs so that Mugen can finish off the transport fleets.
 * With this distribution, there's a 75% chance you will receive no damage when invading Beijing. Even if Mugen does get hit, it will only be for 30hp.
 * Move all but 1 generic admiral to Beijing. Optimise the damage output and you should be unscratched.
 * Try to group Tanaka, Tougou and/or Ozawa in the same star field as Keiko to get the most out of Keiko's Edu admiral skill. (Mugen only receives a +2% stat boost per level, so exp is not valuable on him. Send him into a different star field instead.)
 * Use as many commanders as you can in battles, since they all receive a fixed exp if they participate (the last hit on an enemy ship has no impact on exp. Likewise, exp is bsed on participation, it is not 'split' between participating commanders)
 * MAKE SURE to completely defeat both transport fleets in the star field with 2 chun commanders. It will take 2 attack phases to do this if you used the troop distribution above. Starfield annihilation bonuses will only be received if you

Always build fish market on your first run when you first conquer a territory: Don't bother changing the buildings in Chun - you should take Hawaii before turn 30, which means they will all be taken by Yuan, a new country that will appear.
 * It really helps push forward in early game on your first run
 * It unlocks the ships for your new game +
 * Special buildings are only useful much later in the game
 * You can change the building for a small some of tech (gets more expensive as you own more stars, multiples of 5)
 * You can let enemies invade the star and then retake it from a weakened force to change the building for free

Event phase: “A meeting in Beijing” will enable recruitment of Hanitora, a high utility, clearable commander but only if you don't blitz Chun. Do this if you intend to accept the 1st Gamerican demand. If you don't, then choose Rinfa's event right away.

The event must be done before invading Nanjing, so pick it first. Other than that:
 * Prioritize recruitment of unique commanders - “Poisoned by Sharism” to recruit Rinfa, the Chun girl you defeated in the red dress is the one you’ll want to do first. She comes with a decent missile ship too.  “A god among men” to recruit Shibagami is going to show up on turn 4
 * Tanaka Raizou has only 2 events, and a stat upgrade that comes with the second one
 * Although low priority, try to do Ozawa up to her 5th event (Hacking operation) and Rikori up to her 4th event (Rikori thanks Tougou) by around turn 40-50

Turn 2

You have 2 options here: Spruance, Jakarta and Grand each come with a CL class ship, which can be a great budget way of increasing your firepower early in the game.
 * 1) Buy a Laser Battleship (BB) to make your fights easy - if not recruiting Hanitora
 * 2) Buy a Prison ship to capture commanders and recruit them later - only certain commanders can be captured, the ones you should pay attention to are:
 * 3) * Tenten in Nanjing - pretty useless, but you can use them defensively
 * 4) * Kaikai in Chongqing - 720 HP, which makes her a good decoy ship
 * 5) * Spruance in Micronesia - pretty useless, but you can use them defensively
 * 6) * Jakarta in M.Tiger - 300CP commander with 3 slots with an aircraft modifier that will be positive if you level him a few times
 * 7) * Grand in Vietnam - 360CP commander that can be pretty useful

Note that all your captive prisoners are recruited with a single Recruit a prisoner event, so it's best to wait until you have all 5, or up to Jakarta above before triggering the recruitment event.

Either way, give your new ship to Yamamoto, then send everything to the second Chung Empire's territory.

If you chose Hanitora's event last turn, recruit Rinfa. Otherwise, you should do Rikori (the army girl's event) - this will get you a free win that's very valuable to use on Hawaii before turn 30. You'll need to do 4 of her events, and the first 2 early on.

Optimize your ships, if you got the BB ship, you shouldn't take damage (4 DD-50s on Ozawa and Nagumo, Sunfish on Tougou can help a lot).

Turn 3

Accepting the 1st Gamerican demand delays war with Gamerica to turn 8 (instead of turn 5), allowing you to complete Hanitora's recruitment conditions, conquer Chun and make it just in time to use the Surprise attack to take Manila 2K and Micronesia simultaneously. Turn 4
 * If you are not recruiting Hanitora, reject the Gamerican demands, strip the Traitor's Laser Cruiser (CL) and Rinfa's Missile Cruiser (CL), optimise damage output, you'll get hit a bit but that's OK (ideally, let the generic admiral decoys and Tanaka get hit - Tanaka has 2 movements so can recover in Japan). Storm Chongqing. Grab the pandas. Do Shuu's stash even (which is a ship that scrap for 10800 res, very important)
 * If you are recruiting Hanitora, you have to wait, so accept Gamerica's 1st demand only, send anyone who needs to be healed back to Japan and get read to attack Chongqing on turn 5

In the meantime, the Americans have been bombarding you with proposals. Say no to everything (unless you wish to take the extra turn needed to activate Hanitora's event in which case submit to the first demand) and send your ships to where the first Chung Empire’s territory was. Get the Shibagami/Wolf guy event. When America declares war on you, instant repair your damaged fleet. Use the load of cash you got from scrapping the Chung Enpire's ship to optimise your fleet (I built 3 more BBs, 3 or 4 CLs).(darksabaton's Note: with proper setup i built only 1 CL-50, after fight repair costing 300 or so

TsuchiNoKao's note: you only need 2 DD-50s and a couple comms ships in total, from the beginning of the game. this lets you take all the captures and field bonuses with very little damage:
 * Yamamoto with a DD-50, salamander, prison ship and Thndr
 * Ozawa with 3 DD-50s and the Panda
 * Nagumo with a 3 DD-50s and the CL-50
 * Shibagami with the Sunfish
 * Rinfa with 1 DD-50
 * Tanaka with 1 DD-Thndr, 1 DD-50 and the radar ship
 * Tougou with the red whale and CG-Old Style
 * 1 generic and Higuchi with 1 comms boat each

Micronesia: Manila 2K:
 * Yamamoto against Spruance
 * Shibagami against the missile ship
 * Nagumo and Tanaka against Bradley
 * Ozawa against Lala
 * Tougou, Rinfa, Higuchi and 1 generic against Douglas (You can use Higuchi since Manila 2K will not stabilise right after being conquered like most other territories anyway. Just make sure to move him away next turn)
 * Leave the 3rd star field empty

) Send Shibagami + the weaker one to Manila 2000 and the other fleets to Midway (Micronesia)(darksabaton's Note: i sent shiba and 2 on manila rest on micronesia). You should be able to do math to figure out how to best optimize the battle situation, but the early laser battleships, while it'll hurt you later, give you a lot of firepower. Because you attacked immediately after the US DoW, the enemy ships are unable to fire lasers, so keep that in mind.

Turn 6

You have 6 territories. Follow up by grabbing the commander from Manila, Lala Manie, then researching the missile battleships and equipping them to take Rabaul as well as Malay Tiger as soon as you get Japanification (so as to grab the commander there).(darksabaton's Note: if you bought the big amount of laser ships before that Rabaul will be an issue) Build a harbor in both locations, and then swamp Shikoku around turn 10. This sets you up into a great position to strike at Gamerica, the Soviets, or Aeris.

Don't forget that because you bumrushed Chung Empire, Togo isn't invulernable in the last territory, but he has invulnerability for later. If you really want to, you can abuse this and take Hawaii around turn 14/15 by having Togo solo the carrier fleet and laugh while they do nothing to him (Note: after taking Hawaii, Rance will come and occupy all your Chung Empire's territories)

Don't forget to grab commanders whenever you can in your events, above all other events you should prioritize new unique commanders > Doenitz > Fukuhara Izumi (Taira's cousin) > Retia Adolf after getting her(need for Manstein). Unfortunately, because we're rushing through territories, the submarine tech start of turn event will get pushed out by higher priority start of turn events. Avoid capturing Hawaii, Arabia or Chernob for a bit, until you get submarines, or else it can keep getting pushed out for a long time. Of course, you can also just carry on without them!

Mid Game
Now you should be thinking about the route you want to go into. The most friendly route is the "turtle" Empress route, where you first clear all of Doenitz's events (and then Izumi's) while slowly pushing torwards Arabia. Get as many cash and ship specials as you can-with lots of missile battleships this gives you a strong enough force to push very hard, especially against the barriers that the Aeris tend to have. Once Arabia is taken, be prepared to deal with Rance. After dealing with Rance (or alternatively, letting him batter your walls while the rest of your fleet hides in Africa), do not attack Suez (as that would take you into Dokutsu route, which can be very bad if you have no income or admirals) but instead South. You need to wait for the Aeris Empire to take North Africa before you can take Kenya. Be sure not to attack the Kenyan fleet when doing so, despite the 30000 cash bonus you get by doing so. Then you can save Andromeda (the battle station there isn't too hard because you bumrushed through the other territories) and then grab Rommel.

When Berlin is about to fall, Doenitz will request to go to Berlin to save Retia. Refusing her request will make her leave the roster, and Retia will die, so choose the first option. When Russians capture Berlin, an event will happen where Berlin gets wiped off the map, cutting it from Eastern Europe. Once Dokutsu falls, take the fleets that you used to defend against Rance and finish him off fast because the Russians will be coming.

With your forces in Africa, move them to Paris but do not go into London until you get an event where you and Sarah Britten get into an warp gate accident (this event shows up a few turns after you see Knight Fleets attacking your regions at random. There will be an H scene.) if you want to save Sarah and co. You should have captured her sister in the meantime-as a general rule if you see an enemy commander that you want (with the exception of Kenya) destroy their fleet entirely.

After the event, London will become neutral to you for a turn, in which Sarah and Eliza will join you before it declares war on Japan again. You will also notice that taking London is much easier now.

Don't forget to do Adolf's events so you can have her (and later Manstein) in your fleet.

Late Game
Note from contributor: Taking London at this point may trigger the CORE revolt if Hawaii isn't taken yet. This forces to you to attack Hawaii and USJ immediately if you want to get Carol (whom I presume to be required for the true ending).

After triggering Sarah's event you should take London down easily and then proceed to spread out your fleets and secure every location in the area. Send a few of your elites back and have them get ready to assault the Soviet Union. You only need two fleets or so at each territory to defend against the US, but do not take Hawaii or else you will trigger some events that we want to avoid right now.

Buy the big raft snowships and equip them, then push torwards Moscow. Do not take it until you have heavy carriers as well as Manstein when he attacks you. Manstein is a beast and you'll need him for when your heavy carrier investment becomes less useful in Gamerica. Grab the heavy aircraft carriers because you need them to kill the space monster. With your fleet of Togo + 3 other guys, all with maxed heavy aircraft carriers, send them to first snipe the Russian guy so as to cut the monster's attack in half (allowing your ships to tank one round of attack) so you can proceed to finish it off the second round. Now you can save Katerin and co by taking Kateringrad and then Ekateringrad. The Soviet commanders are not terribly strong compared to Gamerica's or Aeris's for the most part but having them is better than nothing.

With your now massive fleet you should have no problem taking Hawaii. You could cheese and go in the back way through Spain but that's no fun and you miss out on a lot of characters that you can spam clear for cgs after you take over the world. Do the warp portal event (both of them if you haven't already) and open the route to Kanada. You can either wait for Halsey to come down so you can capture her when she invades from Kanada, or you can just go in for the kill through Kanada (or directly through USJ, if you want to fight CORE). You need to completely wipe out Dwight's entire formation, not just his fleet, to capture him, I believe.

If you are going the CORE route, prepare for fun as you get kicked out of all of Gamerica. You can just equip all your ships with carriers though and just plow through their fleets-they are not very strong for the most part as long as you are careful about not putting female characters in, as any territory with "WAO!" in it causes them to do half damage.

If you are going the standard Gamerica route through Kanada its a bit easier and more straightforward as you just have to deal with a few NAP pauses before you can stamp them out. Then just go to the Emperor ending to finish the game or try and clear as many characters as you can.

Scarlett Routes (i.e. Non-Japanization)
Scarlett Route requires a different approach than Empress Route, because of the following:

a) More income

b) Many, many more rebellions, which can sap your income if you are not careful.

c) Less admirals and characters available, which combined with the second can sap your strength.

Early Game

Start by taking your time and grabbing Hanitora by grabbing the H-Scene with her after you take the first Chun Empire’s territory.

Continue rejecting all US proposals and take Chun Empire around turn 6. You want to get the blackmail events for Hanitora to join you because although her fleets are weak her passive grants 3 peace per turn-which because of your accelerated income and mass rebellions is going to be very necessary. Make sure to grab as many "decent" admirals as possible (i.e. events with Inugami, event at Manila 2000, etc. Bradley is very hit or miss.) Make sure to do the "Warp Gate" (as of patch 0.5 this is titled "Discovery Event 1") event. Send out your generic admirals randomly (give them a destroyer, send them to a planet that needs to be pacified, take away their destroyer, etc.) and take Micronesia. Build up your forces a bit more before taking Manila 2000 because as soon as you do you have to be fast to avoid having Aeris attack you and slowing your push. I usually stormed Manila around turn 14 and followed it up with a quick blitz on Rabaul and Malay Tiger, and Shikoku (Australia) right after. Build a harbor at Malay Tiger and keep a few fleets here-this will be your permanent defense against Aeris. For Rabaul, you need missile cruisers/battleships, so don't forget to grab a few of those. You'll also need them later to deal with the Aeris Empire's barrier fleets. Do not forget to finish Doenitz's events.

Accept the NAP with the Soviets and gather your forces for an attack on Hawaii. If you see Maki on board after turn 7 or so, reload the previous save and save Togo's fleet until you are ready to take Hawaii. Blitz it and have Togo tank the carriers while the rest of your fleets engage the other fleets. Rance will now appear, but because of your low territory count he will have far lower HP ships than usual. Quickly retreat to Japan from Hawaii and you can wipe Rance out in two turns. By now, Dokutsu is likely about to be defeated, and hopefully you didn't waste an event sending them money. Make sure to let Doenitz return to Germany during the event and get Retia as a commander. Do the "Warp Gate 2" event. Do not invade Kanada until you have captured Halsey-her carrier bonuses are really conducive for the heavier carriers you will be putting out later on.

Once you invade Canada, proceed to attack down the US until you have taken Chicago X. Do not take Washington, whatever you do. Otherwise, Aeris Empire will warp in and capture Moscow, which loses events. Build a Dock there and leave 3-5 fleets to defend, then pull the rest of your fleet (especially Togo) back to Japan. The Soviets should have declared war by now. Research the Snow Ship (looks like a giant raft) and take Siberia, pushing to Cirnobyl (it's because it's cold). Capture Manstein when he counterattacks. Continue grabbing as many commanders as you can (such as Subspace Quattro) and don't forget to pacify regions (by putting a weak or generic/Hanitora on there) and keep defending at your chokepoints

When the While Hole event occurs, it will automatically send all your fleets back to Japan where they will be healed. Let them heal for a bit and do all White Hole related events to speed it up, and prepare to assault Moscow. You'll need to be a little cute here-have one person with two heavy carriers to oneshot Bordanenko (the drunk guy), Togo with a snow shed, some kind of damage, and 2 heavy barriers ships, as well as 2 sub commanders ((Retia and the Russian Sub Commander are both good for this)) filled with the most advanced sub. You should be able to sink the monster or at the very least get 8 stars. Alternatively you could wait for unagi banro to attack you, then recruit her and equip her with carriers to one shot the drunk guy, then her electric eel ability along with the cold attack will reduce the monsters attack by 100%, use the most advanced subs and you will be able to sink the monster entirely, works for both moscow and the russian plains. Follow up by taking Kateringrad and then Yikateringrad, and you have now conquered the Soviets. Make sure to keep Katerin and co. innocent (the bottom choice) for some of the end game.

Now at the same time you can probably assault Washington directly. The battle is pretty straightforward (at least, much easier than CORE, which is why we're on this route (also, to get Douglas)). You should now see the events of Red Phalanx, the anti-Japanese organization. Get ready to move all your fleets to Malay Tiger, or at the very least Togo. By now you should have enough for heavy carriers. Grab them. You should have enough for 3 or 4 people to have full heavy carriers. This will be more than enough to smash Red Phalanx's attacks. Make sure Togo is in as many fights as possible. Eventually you will capture Scarlett. Just do her events and eventually she will join you as commander. Then just steamroll through the British Empire (aircraft carriers are just too strong until you get to North Africa (where there are sandstorms) and even then you can just grab the sandstorm ship (think Jawas) and press on. Take Andromeda, capture MauMau (do not attack their fleet) and capture Mary in South Africa. Clear Maumau by doing all of her events. If you choose to capture Eliza as well (by doing the Suez surprise) then you will need to act a little differently. Don't forget to do the event in North Africa, by the way, Rommel is hiding there. Then push through Rome and then into Paris. Sit in Paris and do not rush into London until you either get Eliza's event (where she offers to talk to Sarah) or the "warp gate" accident happens. Then you cn attack London. There should be another event that you can do which will take you into the final boss battle IF you have Sarah and Mary, Caroll (from Gamerica, i.e. blonde twintail) Dorothy (maybe), Retia, Katerin and Mirya, and maybe Douglas. Scarlett, of course, is in this route, so it is a bit of a must. Don't forget to have two ypes of fleets-either massed aircraft cariers, or heavy defenders combined with hard-hitting subs.

Dokutsu Route
This route can be tricky and requires some planning to complete it successfully.

To reach this route, the goal is to conquer Washington or Suez by turn 30. After about 10 turns. The world should be under the Japanese German Alliance. Mobility is key in this routes as is recruiting as many useful admirals before the alliance.

If you Choose Japanization, You can aquire Nelson, Mikado, and Rashara but the lower income will slow the ability to build carriers and subs which are important to fighting Dokutsu.

Some good admirals to get:
 * Nelson, Saffron, Clione, Rasshara, and Fumi: Pick them up on the way towards Suez,
 * Lydia: Don't sign the Soviet non-aggression pack so that you can immediatly invade russian territories.
 * Carol, Ku: Invade Gamerika Through Canada.
 * Gamerikan Generals: Isabelle, Cathy, Frith

Part 1: 40 Turns to capture as much as you can...

Guide:
 * After conquering Chung Empire, the goal is to divide the fleet into invading Aeris Empire and protecting the home front. Preferably Togou should be left behind to attack Hawaii and save his special barrior abilty for some key battles.
 * Leave most Gamerikan Territories alone and narrow the chokepoints to mirconesia and Manilla 2000.
 * Send Ozawa, Yamamoto, and whatever Admirals you can spare to punch through the South of the Aeris Empire. Stock up on the 600 Barriorships, subs, and perhaps missile cruisers for those fleets.
 * Recruit any admiral that becomes available and keep them with Togou gaurding the Main line.
 * After Arabia was conquered, deal with the Mongols Regions with all the newly recruited admirals back at home base.
 * Invade Suez and meet with Rommel. This will confirm the Dokutsu path. North Afrika won't fall.
 * Arabia will be the southern chokepoint. Just keep invading west until the rest the rest of the world.
 * Don't accept the Soviet non aggression pack. Just invade the two Soviet regions, get lydia and set up a chokepoint for now.
 * Finnally just take out as much as Gamerika as possible by turn 40....

Part 2: The World Divided in half.

Start off By stationing troops to block all three entrances into Japanese territory. The Goal is to get to an area near Berlin within 30 turns.

Standard Dokutsu formations are:
 * A Main Fleet with 2 Cruisers and a big Laser.
 * A small but agile fleet with 2 Cruisers
 * A Submarine Fleet.

A good Tactics is two 600 Anti-Laser Ships (The Cheapest will do) + whatever ships you can also fit on a commander + lots of Submarines (The cheapers one will work as cannons tend to be strong anyways. Unfortunatly Dokutsu uses subs which are far suppior to yours armed have lasers, missiles, and cannons. Counter them with Aircraft Carriers and Anti-Sub Scouts. In a nutshell, produce lots of barrior ships, Subs, and Aircraft carriers

The quickest route is East, through Spain. After you conquer a territory near Berlin, just hold off for three battles..

Instead of building a big navy before invade Suez or Washington in the last turn before the fall of North Africa, an alternative strategy is exploit a flaw in the game. Invading Hawai activate a huge storm that temporarily close the Hawai-USJ gate, but if it is done just the turn before Gamerika surrender to the Axis, then the game cannot display the scene for reopen the gate and make the storm permanent. Now we only need to defend two fronts at the cost of sacrifice the eastern regions of Gamerika for take a longer but safe road to Berlin. The former Aeris corridor can be defend with our weakest fleets, Ugaki's "front line diplomacy" skill and a Military base in Malaysian Tiger or Arabia. Our strongest fleets can steamroll the former soviet corridor to Jaian. Is cheap but if we just want to watch the Dokutsu route ending, then with the fishes and the ninja it save some of the hassle.

CORE game - "The Last Fools Story"
To unlock the game mode, you must: When you have cleared the game at least once (the clear game requires CORE revolt to occur and for you to defeat the space monster Virginia), the second option in the menu will become available. Choosing this will let you play the game as CORE. When starting your game, you'll have to choose between two options, wether you want to read the manual, which pretty much states what are the rules of a "CORE game", which could be considered the equivalent of Sengoku's extreme games. The rules are:
 * defeat the space monster Virginia (this happens when you defeat CORE in Washington)
 * not use Colonel Akashi
 * clear the game (any ending)

1 - No HP recovery. Your ships will never repair, and Repair shops aren't available. You can repair yourships for 100 Resources using 1.02 Patch. Do note that without income this naturally impossible. However, there seems to be a trick to aquiring resources in this mode.

2 - HP has been decreased, and other nations will never try to invade you. The only character unaffected by these changes is King CORE.

3 - No income, no shipbuilding, no technologies. You are given 30 Battleships, 30 Cruisers and 30 Destroyers, and you have to manage with that.

4- If King CORE's HP reaches 0, it's Game Over. Be careful with him.

Your goal is to conquer every starfield. When you do, the game is cleared.

That's it. There are some other noteworthy points, though. You only have access to laser ships, which can be quite annoying when faced to Gamerica's and Aeris' carriers, or barrier ships. Also, since you cannot repair your ships, this means that every admiral that takes damage will be permanently stuck with the fleet he had without any hope of changing it, so try to be careful with what you do with your fleets.

When starting a game, you will have King CORE, McKinley, Truman, and 13 generic CORE admirals, each with 360 Command Points.

Another thing to take into account and that isn't quite made obvious by the game: When you will have chosen one of the girl's events twice, her character portrait will change, and she will become available as an admiral, but her stats will be zeros everywhere. The trick? She acts just like the Type 79 Destroyers (Prov skill): enemies will focus first on this ship, and gain a 100% damage bonus when targeting it. They are meant to be sacrificed during tough fights when you know you will have to take a hit, and would otherwise cost you one of your admirals. Once again, ships can't be repaired and they only have 15 HP, which means they can only be used once. Taking into account that you don't have an infinite supply, use them wisely.

As I mentioned before, other nations will never try to invade you, so the speed at which you're going to play is entirely up to you, but this guide aims at a finish line being around turn 40.

As for the guide itself, there is no linear way to clear a CORE game, if only that it seems easier to start from Spain. Once you reach O'France, be careful about the Maginot defense system, as it can easily wipe you if you're not lucky and/or careful. That, and the laser barrier they have. Move on next to London, while taking care of the joke that Itarin is, and quickly pass through Germany while sacrificing Hannah, then Rosa and then (Julius or Sarah or Mucchilini, your pick) in the 3 Dokutsu territories.

Now things will become serious. You either have the choice between taking Suez and invading Russia, which will both prove annoying if not handled properly, but for differeent reasons:

-When invading Russia, you will alway be facing three admirals with missile ships, which are easily taken care of, but the fourth one has 1140 HP and 420 laser. Since you obviously want to take care of the missile ships first, the most efficient solution so far has been to send Truman and McKinley along with two other Generics each equipped with two Battleships, so they had enough HP to withstand at least one hit from the opponent's lasers. Make sure to reload if the laser guy targets one of your admirals with low HP instead of one that can still take a hit, if you still have one. When you lose a fleet, quickly replace it and continue, since you don't have much of a choice. You shouldn't lose more than 5 fleets (Don't hesitate to sacrifice McKinley and Truman, them having 0 HP won't change anything to the story) to take over Russia, which is why you want to take it down first. Aside from Suez, the other starfields won't be much of a challenge.

- alternative: use 3 Generics (radar above 120) and 1 Tank (HP480 or Turman/McKinley). Try and error method. If the tank was hit, lucky, if not reload. First aim are the missle ships. Be sure that you can finish the fourth bevor he can fire a second time. For exemple: Round 1: 3x270 for each missile ship and 360 (Tank) for laser ship. Round 2: 3x270 on laser ship --> 1170 Result: McKinley, Truman and 4x Generics with low HP and no lose

-As for Suez, the issue here isn't exactly the damage you will take. You have the choice between taking down the two 'asteroids' which hit each of your fleets for 45 damage. It isn't exactly dangerous as much as it is annoying since it will prevent you from re-equipping the 8 fleets (7 if you use King CORE, which I did) you used for the battle. And if you keep Suez for last, you will end up with low HP, low speed fleets that will probably get taken out.

After this, the order in which you take down the rest is entirely up to you. You will have to sacrifice 3 other girls for the Chun Empire’s starfields, since there is no other way to avoid getting your fleets smashed by those 540 laser ships. Use 3x generics with 3xsmall and one medium --> 630 radar and 180 laser = 540 damage. Forth generic shouldn't be a problem to create

The other girls you will get are better kept for the 4 Gamerica territories, and eventually the North African territories of the Aeris Empire. The only annoying thing for these regions is that you will have to face aircraft carriers, and thus you can't avoid the damage.

As for Vietnam, Australia and the other Aeris colonies, the only issue there is a 120 hp ship with a -300 laser barrier ship, though you can easily take care of it.

Alternate guide

It is entirely possible to clear the King CORE chapter in 27 turns. However, that isn't sufficient time to view every single event in the event phase, so you may want to hold off conquering the last territory until after you've seen them all.

Leave only 4 generic admirals in USJ and send everyone else to Europe. First wave of conquests should go through Spain, Paris, Rome and North Africa, with one star system falling per turn. In order to minimize damage at Paris, attack the area with human defenders and 1 area with the Maginot Line defensive system. Also, equip the generic admirals involved with 4 cruisers each.

As "slaves" become available, use them first to help conquer the three Dokutz systems. Use the next 4 to draw fire from the Gamerican carriers as and when they are available. These "slaves" along with the 4 generics left at USJ at the start can easily take all Gamerican territories. At that point, they should rendezvous with the main fleet.

Meanwhile, in Europe, begin invading Soviet space. Hit each system with McKinley, Truman, and 2 generics, each equipped with 1x battlship, 1x cruiser, 2x destroyers. Target missile ships first, and don't let the Soviet laserships get off more than one shot each. Worst case scenario, you lose 1 flotilla per Soviet system. However, as long as those lost include McKinley and Truman, you'll still be in good shape for the rest of the game.

After taking out the Soviets, leave 4 generic admirals to take out the Chung Empire's while the remainder continue through Japan and start hitting the Aeris colonies, working your way south back to Suez and Madagascar. There's no way to completely avoid taking damage from the flotilla with the barrier ship, but you can limit it by making sure they don't get off more than one attack. No real strategy is required to take Suez. You just need to see what condition your damaged flotillas are in and decide whether or not it would be better to take out the defense walls first, or the human ships.

With the fall of Suez and Madagascar, there are only 5 Aeris territories left. Bad news is, at each system, they have one carrier and one fast laser flotilla, both causing moderate damage. Good news, they have low health. Expend the remainder of your "slaves" to draw fire (2 per system), and throw whatever admirals are still alive at them in a war of attrition.