Heavy Cav...

[Hevcav]

I am a new player and this is my first post to this site. I am playing my second game (just barely lost my first the Hojo Hoard). But now I am playing the Hojo Hoard and am winning fairly easily (I control 3/4 of the terratories) but have run up against a brick wall Heavy Cav in mass. Every battle that I go into anymore has 2 or 3 units of Heavy Cav and when they smash into my army they are shaken and run like girls. I have tried to counter with Muskets and with Samari...mulitple archers...nothing seems to counter that initial impact on my lines. I guess I need help on how to counter this. thanks for all you help.

[EuroSan]

Get Heavy Cav your self.........or take some high honoured Yari Samuraijs to face them

------------------
May the honour be with you all..........EuroSan the reborned spirit of LinkSan

[Minagawa Daimon]

and also, ...oh forget it...take advice on top

[The Bear]

With heavy cav , honour is everything. Follow the advice above and if the heavy cav you encounter are of very high honour, having your own high honour heavy cav is the only solution one against one. We talk a lot about wm but High honour heavy cav is the strongest unit in this game.

[The Bear]

OH yeah, i forgot. Because of the heavy armor, heavy cav tire easily during winter. So if you're on the attacking side, winter is a good season to get them (using high honored yari samurai). If your defending use the woods, all cavalry get a good penalty against spear foot soldiers if they fight in the woods.

[shingenmitch2]

???? High honour heavy cav is the strongest unit in this game.

My yari cav or yari sam slaughter them like dogs. Even-up they trade at a loss with monks and nags.

[borisus]

You can also use a wall of YA to stop the charge,and after that send some YS to help them.


------------------
"A WISE MAN ONCE SAID,LETS KICK THAIR ASS!"

[EricNoFear]

if i were you, id take them out of the pidture first, use some nag to baricade oncomming troops, and then kill the HC with some yari troops, id suggest cavalry as when the HC start fleeing, you dont want them to rally and come back as you

[smeegol]

once you get used to the game and how to use tactics youll be ready.

use army formations!!! itll help soo much. (since you are most likely fighting the takeda clan w/ all that cavalry) you should buy lots of yari samurai. If you are defending, take the high ground. Place your spearmen units on the front lines (NOT ASHRIGU!) ashrigu rout very easily. Use hold position and hold formation with the spearmen and than feinforce them in necessary

use archers behind them on skirmish mode. They will rain death on the attacking forces before they even get to fight.
There is nothing better than fighting on a hill, with a wall of your men holding off ALL of their troops in a tight line and having your archers/musketeers kill them all with ease. Make sure you use archers and muskets in battles. They lower the moral of troops like a mudda fugga and also kill TONS of the enemy if you use them right.

try to flank with calvalry and hide units in the woods to flank. i remember one battle where there was almost no way i was going to win and my army was starting to waver. but then i remember by 3 units of muskets far behind the battle hiding in a small forest. i moved them up behind the enemy and opened up on them. their entire army had already committed to fighting. if they broke off to engage a suicide charge through the open field to get to my muskets they would just give my men going melee a much better chance to win. their enitire army rounted after about a minute after my guns opened up on them

read through the forums somone posted some links for good shogun stradegies.

and oh yea when attacked use a good formation that has a good plan set out with everythng set. you move the army by slecting all units, hitting 'g' to make them a group, and than clicking on the desired location for them to march to. It keeps them in order and will almost ensure you won't get attacked while you are trying to reform your formation after you get close enough to the enemy lines to start your opening engagements and tactics.

good lucky, stay with the game and get good b4 you decide it sucks b/c you cna't win
i can defeat the AI on expert w/ ease now but when i first got this game i couldn't be it on easy mod

[ShaiHulud]

Naginata on 'Hold' formation to meet them, shoot arrows, flank the bastards with more troops! Damned elitist cavalry bastards! hehe

------------------
Wind fells blossoms, rain
fells steel,yet bamboo bends and drinks

[CeltiberoSkullXIII]

Hi try to use YARI SAMURAIS they are the best answer to those f... Horsemen, because Ashigarus lose their Moral quickly if they being attacked with High Honour Units or more powerfoul units. But dont think that the Spears can stop cav forever, if the cav comes form the sides and from ur highly trained spearmen will be useless against a massive Horse attack!

[InterestingTimes]

One damn effective technique. I once had an army solely consisting of HC. I used it only in maps like totomi (i.e. flat). First battle fine, rode through army like wheat.
SECOND time I amply the same manuvear,they spread out. Fine, I charge up the middle like usual. Suddenly my flanks are attacked.
They had surrounded me with many many many YC. my HC died like so many (insert any word). Moral of the story?

No matter how good you are or how much honor you have, If many many many many people attack your flanks u still finished.

[The Bear]

???? High honour heavy cav is the strongest unit in this game.

My yari cav or yari sam slaughter them like dogs. Even-up they trade at a loss with monks and nags.
_____________________________________________

Even-up the heav cav will demolish yari cav, nags and no-dachis, try it in custom battles, look at the unit stats also. High honoured yari samurai in hold formation will hurt the heavy cav because of the "spear bonus" against cavalry like high honoured archers will hurt warrior monks because of the weak armor.

This leaves us with wm against hc, both shock troops. I agree that because of the high morale, the high attack stats and the lower cost, one against one, heavy cav trade at a lost with wm. I know that wm unbalance the game a lot, that's why they are so talked about. Hopefully in the expansion pack, they will be toned down or a stronger counter will be offered (Maybe sword saint? Maybe going Christian really helps vs wm morale factor?).

This said, i still believe that a unit of high honoured heavy cav is the strongest unit in many situations (flat maps, bridge maps, defending a province, against a AI army heavy in cavalry (Takeda) or archers (usegi,imagawa).

[Dunhill]

Basic Art of War stuff here.

Choose your time and place, winter with hills and trees.

Meet the charge with your best defensive unit to hold them, then flank with nasty, sharp, pointy, teeth (YA + YS).

Finish them off when they route with cav that has been held in reserve.

Good luck.

[shingenmitch2]

bear - my point is this, I can stop them with yari cav or better yet, Yari spear --

200 koku vs 800 koku -- the 200 koku YS will knock the 800 koku HC down to a useless unit-- even if the HC wins. Now use 800 koku on the YS to kick his honor up and see who wins. At this even cost it is a slaughter.

[Vanya]

I mount a heavy iron spike onto the head-pieces of my heavy cav, which turns the horse into a lethal battering ram. That compensates for the yari effect, and makes these bastards extra tough. Of course, when koku is tight, I just strap on dead ashigaru instead... and if ashigaru dead are few, I strap on some peasant limbs. The psycological effect is real... unless the enemy lines are starving...