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Sengoku
11-18-2000, 16:56
One time I was playing a full campaign, and the enemy attacked my province Musashi with
240 Yari Cavalry
120 Cavalry Archers
120 Yari Ashigaru
I, in comparison, had
60 Samurai Archers
60 Yari Ashigaru (H1)
My SA stripped the edge from their first YC attack, which plunged straight into my YA spears (thankfully they didn't rout). They sent over another two YC assaults, eventually routing back through the CA and YA which in turn bade a hasty retreat. I won with casualties at about 10 - 120. It just shows the value of the terrain and that with careful management you can win virtually any battle.

Tenchimuyo
11-18-2000, 21:39
I agree, the terrain is a big part of the battle factors. It often decides the fate of an arny's survival on the battle field. Regardless whether it's the defnder or attacker!

The Black Ship
11-18-2000, 22:14
Sengoku,

This also shows how stupid the AI can be at times. Why the CA didn't just pelt your responding Ashis into oblivion is beyond me. With odds like that the AI should be smart enuff to win http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif

solypsist
11-19-2000, 00:33
now, now...it was never mentioned what setting the game was on...

the beauty of fighting off such a huge assault (aside from victory) is that after a while you have a pretty good core army in that province. After fighting over Shinano and beating off Hojo attacks of 1000s over my 100s, my little army was up to honor 5 in only a few turns. The downside is, it was perpetually getting smaller by a few men each time.

Sengoku
11-19-2000, 03:03
Okay, I admit, it was only on the 'Normal' setting, but its still quite an achievement -and shows the advantage of letting the enemy troops rout rather than trying to massacre them all.
I also think that it is much easier to defend than attack - if the enemy seems to have a small amount of troops defending, you can be sure that about 500 will suddenly come storming in from behind. Perhaps the enemy cavalry hallucinated and saw a group of H9 warrior monks charging at them with sharpened blades...but maybe not...

solypsist
11-19-2000, 16:44
one of my biggest peeves is when i start moving my entire army over the bridge, usually after my spearhead has broken through and some of the enemy have broken.
that part isnt what makes me mad, ha ha, its the part when a unit stalls after crossing the bridge (for some reason, despite the icon having the quick-march arrows clearly showing)and everybody else gets traffic jammed thus allowing my routed enemy to actually run off the field instead of getting mown down!

Rob
11-19-2000, 16:51
Yeah, bridge gridlock is a major problem. More maps with 2 or more bridges would be nice. I wonder if it's possible to have two bridges next to each other?

As far as the stupidity of the AI is concerned, I have said before that the AI's handling of bridge assaults is diabolically poor. AI troops march slowly over the bridge under hails of arrows, then wait at until all of the men in the unit have fully crossed before moving. With big fat cavalry units this tends to mean big kills for archers. Often the enemy can be routed once by archers alone, and if you give chase with some Yaris you can rout them off the map.

Sengoku
11-19-2000, 17:10
I wondered why my fast units like no-dachi and warrior monks didn't pass straight over the bridge, I thought it was because there were still a couple of stranded enemy units that my men instisted on attacking.
Similarly to this, I find it most annoying when I attempt to occupy the enemy Yari with my own - while I lead a cavalry attack around to slaughter some irritating archers. For some reason my cavalry seem intent in running sidelong into the enemy spears.

Rob
11-19-2000, 17:26
Yari Cav seem to get caught up in combat far too easily IMO. This happens in most circumstances, not just bridge battles. It heavily impacts on their usefulness and is one of the main reasons I rarely used cavalry.

solypsist
11-20-2000, 01:47
cav are best employed (and in my opinion, this is the only circumstance to cross that bridge) to mow down routing enemy. The thing about YC is they take the most direct rout, so if you want them to circle and hit the archers, its best to manually guide them in a circular action so there's no chance of cutting across the path of spearmen.

The Black Ship
11-20-2000, 02:05
Next time you get stuck like that-unit won't move despite action bars- check to see if all the unit is there. If a lone soldier is stuck back on the bridge you'll sometimes have to wait for him to catch up http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif

I send units over one at a time, with clear gaps between, just to avoid this problem. It seems to work http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif.

Anjin Hiratomoe
11-20-2000, 03:30
sending your units over one at a time with gaps does help and they also seem to go faster.

Have any of you had a problem wwith units just moving for no reason? I was defending a bridge and even before the enemy got any where near it my two units of spearmen i had to guard the bridge just moved behind my two rows of archers.

ShaiHulud
11-20-2000, 05:44
If two units are occupying the same area, even a small part of the units, one will move. Watch placement carefully.

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

Anssi Hakkinen
11-20-2000, 23:54
About the bridge gridlock: for those that do not know, it IS possible to force a unit to move even if a portion of the men are still in the process of crossing. Simply reselect the unit and double-click wherever you want them to be. You'll be leaving behind a stream of stragglers, but at least the main body will get where they need to be. The AI cannot do this (hint hint, plenty of possibilities for exploitation here).

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"A bushi who has mastered the jutsu but knows nothing of the do is like a priest who preaches one thing and does another."
- Shimmen Miyamoto Musashi

solypsist
11-21-2000, 03:29
after fighting plenty of river assaults im aware that persistence in clicking the mouse button results in getting that unit moved.
but it's still a big problem when you've broken the enemy, you click to sweep their routers and then expect to sit back and watch the enemy die but all you end up doing is watching them run off wholesale because one unit of yari samurai (pretty damn slow, those guys) is blocking your cav from wreaking havok.
just me making some noise, that's all.

Sengoku
11-21-2000, 23:55
I find that good melee units like the warrior monks do not suffer in the same way, perhaps I'm mistaken, but I believe this is because the warrior monk unit works better out of formation. The yari may be trying to regroup before it crosses. I also much prefer to use melee units for chasing down routing troops, not least because they are fast and spread out better, but because you can actually see 1 man killing about 10 samurai archers from behind.