Big Force Strategy

## Overview

The Big Force Strategy sees clans accumulate a large force, typically by acquiring strong monsters or by enhancing their figures. It is designed around the Take Hostage War Phase action, as Clans using this strategy need to outbid their opponents to keep their Big Force army intact .

## Clans

Turtle clan and Dragonfly clan are the best clans for Big Force Strategy:

* Turtle clan has near immortal strongholds that count as figures, and cannot be taken hostage.
* Dragonfly clan can fly its big force armies around very effectively thanks to its movement ability.

Bonsai and Lotus are flexible clans that are effective at Big Force Strategy as well.

Moon clan can bring 4 Force to a province quickly through its special ability, but its limitations makes it difficult to gather more than that. Big Force is therefore not ideal to Moon Clan and best used as a secondary strategy. When attempting Big Force with Moon Clan, it is helpful to get Path of the Lion, Path of the Dragon, Fukurokuju, Bishamon or Daikokuten to effectively raise your Force past 4.

## Mandate Phase

### Positioning

Big Force Strategy relies on having a lot of force in a smaller number of provinces, so spreading out is not as important as it is in other strategies. Instead, Big Force Strategy moves a small number of large armies across the map to pick up Harvest rewards and War Province Tokens.

Big Force Players should look to acquire many different War Province Tokens en route to 30 end of game War Province Tokens bonus VP. They therefore have to reposition themselves in the political phase so that they do not end up with duplicate (and less profitable) War Province Tokens.

### Mandates

Your key mandates are:

1. Train - This mandate is very important for this strategy. This is how you acquire big monsters and powerful enhancements.
2. Harvest - Once you have more force in good provinces, harvesting is a good way to get Victory Points, Coin and Ronin. The latter can help you to diversify your strategy.

As Big Force Strategy acquires force through Season Cards, playing Marshall for strongholds is not that important and can be left to other players.

### Season Cards

The following cards are useful for the Big Force Strategy:

* Monsters with a lot of force, such as Oni, Dragons, Yurei, etc.
* Enhancements that improve force, such as Path of the Lion, Path of the Dragon.
* War upgrades that improve force, such as Way of the Katana.
* Cards that reward Take Hostage, such as Sincerity and Respect.

### Honor

Big Force Strategy commonly uses low honor, as they typically do not have the Coin to raise honor through Seppuku and Oni work best with low honor.

## War Phase

Coin needs to be invested in Take Hostage to ensure that opposing clans do not take key figures hostage. As a bonus, Big Force Strategy can take their opponents' figures hostage which translates to coin in the next season that can be used to Train more Season Cards.

## Variations

### Daimyo Big Force

A Big Force Strategy where a clan attempts to acquire the following Core Set cards:

* Path of the Lion
* Path of the Dragon
* Yurei

This combination eventually results in a 5 force Daimyo and a 6 force Yurei, both of which are immune to any special effects that target a specific figure (which includes Take Hostage).

### Low-Honor Oni

Collecting the Oni and keeping Honor low is an effective Big Force Strategy if the opportunity presents itself. It meshes well with Bonsai clan (as Oni are not cheap and Bonsai starts with low honor) and Dragonfly clan (as unbridled movement allows the Oni to contest the right provinces easier).

## References

1. ↑ https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/2054733/three-paths-rising-sun-basic-strategy-primer