banner carriers

[Maltz]

Just a question:

Does the banner carrying soldiers have a higher honor than others, or just purely random? They always charge at front, so I guess they should be the better ones... (or just depends on their numbering?) Thanks!

[shokaku76]

If my memory serves me well, (was History major with emphasis on Japanese History in U of I) it was in Fact Samurais who tied banner to his back, to make it easy to identify units during the battle. Therefore, it seems logical that it would be best fighters who would carry the banners. Plus, I've noticed that during the battles, soldiers with banners seem to kill more and die hard. Of course, I could be wrong, and banner carriers were carrying banners as punishment :-)

Cheers!

[Maltz]

http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

I also have the impression that the banner carriers are always die-hard. But since there will be SOMEONE to carry the banner anyways, we can always see the banner carriers up even if the unit is killed to one digit left. So it might be just our misconception... Yet it is funny when one banner carrier got killed, the banner immediately transfers to the next one - and he now becomes the new target http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

[Target]

Historically speaking, you could well be right Shokaku, but in STW the only banner that marks a special soldier is the one carried by the general. Until he gets killed, that is, and then one of the other soldiers in the unit picks it up. The other flags are only there to show you the ranking of the unit - each additional banner other than the main one held by the unit leader denotes an honour rank. The guys actually holding them are not marked out as anything more than any other man in the unit.

[Shuko]

Each samurai (SAMURAI) had a "sashimono" or a personal flag that was worn on his back, it was held in place by a special holder.

Not sure if ashigarus had them in real life but they would certainly have had a banner or large sashimono for the unit and their lord.

Often a poem was written on the sashimonos.

My guess is that it was an honour to carry the main unit banner or the lords banner so you would think a few strong warriors would protect it and the guy carrying it at all times. In the Roman army it was an absolute and total disgrace for the whole legion if their banner/standard was lost in battle.

[CeltiberoSkullXIII]

You have to see better:
I f a Banner Carrier dies (like a normal soldier), the banner will not fall in the battle field, but another soldier will get it, every unit have 3 banner carriers, if the Third part of ur army is destroyed u will lose a Banner if u lose Two Third parts u will lose 2 banners. Look it! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

http://www.plauder-smilies.de/naughty.gif

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"It's better to let the enemy alive as to kill it ... To TORTURE it!" http://gifanimados.ya.com/terror/calaveras_banderas/flag_wht_blkbns_clr.gif

[Maltz]

Skull, maybe we are playing different versions? In my version (the North America), the number of banners represent honors - so if it is a H3 unit, we will have 3 + 1 (unit leader) banners. Only H2 unit will have 3 banners. As long as an H2 unit has more than 3 soldiers left, we can still see 3 banners. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Anssi Hakkinen]

Shuko-san, ashigaru did carry sashimono in real life, unless they were of the honor 0 rags-and-bamboo-spears variety. So they do in STW.

The banner is always assigned to the number 1 soldier (logfile-wise) of the unit, whoever he is. He may not be the best soldier (as he's somewhat randomly chosen), but the important thing is that the #1 dude of the general unit is the taishô himself. I have zero evidence, but it's not impossible that the banner bearer gets a small boost to his combat abilities, just like generals are hard to kill and daimyô even more so. It's just not "formal" in the sense that his honor doesn't go up in the logfile.

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"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion."
- Joseph Goebbels

[Maltz]

I thought the #01 soldier is also the unit leader - they can also be a good ranked general if the taisho is daimyo or anyone with a higher rank.

I do tend to see the taisho/daimyo is very hard to kill compared to the normal unit leaders - usually more than half of them die in a battle! (probably they always run first). When I first played campaign I always make my daimyo lead some good generals, and they just died off (including heirs :mad http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif after battles.

[Target]

Most of the guys in an army operate on the one-hit-one-kill system, with the exception of the guy leading your army ( be he a Taisho or a daimyo ). He gets additional calculations which give him more protection - look at it like he's wearing the best armour on the field.

If you have other guys in your army that have the potential to be a good Taisho, or they are but they're just not commanding the army that day, then they are considered a one-hit-one-kill soldier. That's why your good generals got killed off relatively easily, Maltz.

[Jaxem]

Quote Originally posted by Maltz:
Skull, maybe we are playing different versions? In my version (the North America), the number of banners represent honors - so if it is a H3 unit, we will have 3 + 1 (unit leader) banners. Only H2 unit will have 3 banners. As long as an H2 unit has more than 3 soldiers left, we can still see 3 banners. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif[/QUOTE]

Agreed, Thats also how you can tell the enemie's honor in a battle. They have banners equal to their honor + 1.

-J

[VoodooChild]

Maltz, this is just conjecture, but since each soldier has a honor value and the units honor is an average of all the soldiers honors (plus the generals honor), then mid battle a unit could lose or even gain flags based on the average honor of the surviving members at that given time.

they do so

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