Teppu or not teppu: The gun thread

[frogbeastegg]

Guns were one of the more difficult units to use well in the original shogun, and there's no doubt this carries over to the sequel. I thought it would be good to get a discussion going, see how people have been using them and what successes they have had.

Personally, I am using them in the same fashion I did in the original. I run them around the flanks of an engaged line and fire into the back of the enemy for the morale shock and damage. I also use them to shoot at heavily armoured units. I never use more than a couple per army. I know some people used to get far better results from their guns in the original game (I was never more than average with the unit) and I would not be surprised if that held true here.

What do people think about the various types of teppu? Ashigaru, samurai, monks, and imported.

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

Gun Samurai are far more effective,in my case.

Ashaguri not that good,they represent the infantrymen in the last samurai,unprepared.

Monk warriors..they're like some cheat codes.

[HopAlongBunny]

The morale shock seems to be the best use still.

One battle I had Sp...G...Sp...G...Sp...G...Sp with archers behind; the initial units all routed before they met my line; the follow-up were generally wavering on advance => except samurai. The AI samurai advanced w/o any apparent penalty.

Once the battle becomes a clusterfudge I have no idea what they really add.

[phred]

I was able to use musketeers in STW 1 to great effect. 4-5 units in an army with a good general and I was able to rout enemy units right and left. The enemy would regroup, charge and rout again.

I haven't had the same luck in STW 2, the enemy usually closes to melee long before my units can get a second volley.
Samurai guns are much better and their rapid fire ability is pretty powerful, but I havent had many battles with them.
I haven't tried the monk version.
The best advice I've seen is to set up your army with gaps, so the matchlocks will retreat back through the gaps and then will fire through the gaps.
I have a Shimazu campaign going at the moment. I'll have to try some different strategies with the matchlocks.

[Ishmael]

It's worth noting that matchlock samurai are easily the best units to have in siege battles - if you put a unit on a section of wall that section will not fall, ever. They can churn up any enemy units as they advance (+ rapid fire, which is devastating), cripple their morale, and are good enough at melee to fight off any remnants that scale the wall. I haven't had much luck with teppu units in the field though, so I'm curious as to how others use them.