screwtype
09-23-2005, 06:31
There's been a lot of speculation here about whether or not the AI is tougher in the earlier TW games. Well, I've just spent the last couple of days playing STW again, and I don't know about the AI, but there's no doubt in my mind that the challenge in STW is MUCH tougher than it is for RTW.
So far in this STW campaign, I've fought a whole bunch of battles that have been won on a knife-edge - and taken some pretty high casualties to boot. As an example, here's a description of the last battle I fought.
The units involved were Yari Samurai (Samurai Spearmen, thenceforth abbreviated to YS), Yari Ashigaru (Peasant Spearmen, the weakest unit in Shogun, abbreviated to YA) and Archers (AR).
I've just been attacked in a river province by a large army of 1500. Because STW can only handle a 960 man army at one time, this means I will have to rout the first full army of 960 off the field and then deal with the other 500 or so as they enter it.
The battle begins. The enemy have four YS, four YA, seven AR in various states of repair, and a heavy cav unit (the enemy Daimyo or faction leader). I have five YS, one YA and four AR's, all with one honour bonus. I'm heavily outnumbered but this will be a bridge battle and experience tells me I have enough troops to repulse the enemy. The only question mark is what sort of honour bonuses the enemy Daimyo brings with him - honour is a major factor in STW.
I decide to emulate the AI's favourite tactic for defending a bridge. I withdraw my army just out of enemy bow range on my side of the bridge. This means he will have to attack over the bridge with no archer support while my archers can fire freely on his advancing units.
He begins by attacking with his four YS. Good - I want him to attack with his best units while my archers have plenty of ammo. My AR's hammer his units as they come across the bridge, and hammer them some more on my side. By the time they reach my own line of YS they are in really bad shape, and a quick attack routs them back across the bridge, where they suffer more missile casualties as they escape. They will not trouble me much more.
Now the enemy advances with his four units of YA, backed by the remnants of his YS and the Daimyo. This time it's his YA's turn to get torn to shreds with my missiles, but now the entire AI army is charging across the bridge, including his own archers. This is the decisive moment to advance with my own melee troops and stop the enemy breakout. My intact YS run toward the bridge but they get there a little late and the enemy has advanced further than I intended. No matter. I can contain the flanks by positioning my archers there while my YS kill the remnants of the enemy melee units.
It takes a little longer than I expected to break the enemy's melee units, but by this time I outnumber them so heavily the result is a foregone conclusion. Pretty soon the entire enemy is routing with the exception of the Daimyo who I have trapped on the bridge. Yippee! I manage to kill the Daimyo. That is going to reduce their morale by an even bigger margin.
Now I have to decide whether to chase them off the field or wait for them to regroup and return with reinforcements. I decide to chase them, because that way the reinforcements usually only arrive in dribs and drabs and one can deal with them piecemeal. But I don't chase quickly, just walk the troops, to try not to tire them out any more than necessary.
Okay the initial AI army has been routed off the field. But where are the AI reinforcements? Oh, here's a unit of YA advancing from the east. I quickly despatch him. Here's another one from the west, with a unit of archers in support. I quickly break them as well.
But by now my army is getting pretty tired with all this chasing, and still I haven't seen the bulk of the AI reinforcements. At last I locate them advancing in a group from the side of the river I started the battle from. It looks like two YS, two YA and one AR. I still have my five YS and four AR pretty much intact, so they shouldn't be a problem.
Oh wait, there's another lone unit of YA advancing from the east. My closest troops are the four AR, and I decide to use all four to ensure the appropriate outcome. So I charge with the four of them and the enemy YA immediately breaks and runs. What a wimp! I assign one AR to the job of chasing this unit off the field, and march the remaining three AR back to the main body of my army.
By this time I have arranged my five YS on the slope of a hill where they are in a strong position, with my three AR on the left flank. The enemy have two units of YS, two of YA and one archer. So I not only outnumber the enemy with my five YS, I also considerably outclass them. My units are by now very tired, but I've already routed three quarters of the enemy and killed his Daimyo. It shouldn't take much to get this last bunch on the run.
But now, something unexpected. A blinking white flag in the unit array. Who the heck is that? I double click on the blinking unit. It's the archers I sent to chase that cowardly unit of YA off the field. I can't believe this! Somehow those lousy peasants have regrouped and are now actually charging my archers! Heck, I didn't expect that!
I try to get the archers to run numerous times but they are caught and can't be extricated. I guess they're just too tired to run away. Will I try to rescue them with my other units of archers? The battle is happening a ways to the rear and by the time they get there the fight will probably be over anyhow. So I just hope those routing archers won't disturb the rest of my army.
By now the main body of the enemy has advanced to within a short distance of my mine. This should be over pretty quick anyhow. The enemy archer unit begins to shoot one of my YS, and I realize I can't wait for them to attack me on the hill. I'll have to take the attack to them. All the more so because yet one more enemy unit has appeared - a YS, advancing very cautiously on the left flank. May as well deal with the others before it gets here.
So here's the final troop disposition (enemy units in red):
_______________________________________AR
_________________________________________YS
____________________________________________YA.YS.YA
______________________________________________________YS
________________________________________YS__YS.YS.YS _____________________________________ AR.AR
YS(distant, stopped) _______________________AR
__________________(wavering)AR
___________________________YA
I attack with my three central YS. Three YS against two YA and one YS. YA cannot stand up to YS for long so I expect a quick rout. Better still, I managed to envelop both flanks of the three enemy units. And I'm attacking downhill. This should be over pretty quickly.
On the left flank, it's a bit tougher. My three AR are now wavering because of the enemy units on the flank and rear, and because that other archer unit has finally routed. So I can't use them to attack. Attacking with routing units always causes them to immediately rout. So they are effectively out of the battle for the moment. That leaves the one YS on the left flank, but he doesn't dare attack his opposing YS because he will no doubt be attacked on his flank by the enemy archer. But I still have my spare YS on the right flank, I was hoping not to commit him because he is my general - but those damned enemy YA just *won't* run! Now is the time.
I charge my general behind the other enemy units, straight toward the enemy archer unit. When it retreats, I will then charge it into the rear of the lone YS on the left flank, at the same time sandwiching it with my other uncommited YS. That should cause a quick rout, then I will use one YS to charge the rear of those blasted YA that just won't die!
I momentarily check another part of the battlefield. Then quickly return to see how my general's charge is going. Oh no! The general has somehow become engaged in the main fight with the three enemy units! I guess their flank must have just got tagged as they ran past.
Now I have to watch helplessly as the YS on the left flank advances together with the archer unit to attack my leftmost YS. But hell, on the right I've got four YS which by now have completely surrounding the two YA and one YS. Surely they must be about to break!
But somehow, they don't. And now my YS on the left is also wavering along with the archer units. I wait anxious seconds to see which side is going to break first. And, you guessed it. It's mine. The YS on the left breaks and then my whole army follows, routing straight through the enemy to be decimated as they run for home.
I had favourable ground, numerical and class superiority, and I'd routed three quarters of the enemy and killed their Daimyo. And still I managed to lose the battle.
I don't know about you guys, but I never have battles in RTW as challenging as this!
So far in this STW campaign, I've fought a whole bunch of battles that have been won on a knife-edge - and taken some pretty high casualties to boot. As an example, here's a description of the last battle I fought.
The units involved were Yari Samurai (Samurai Spearmen, thenceforth abbreviated to YS), Yari Ashigaru (Peasant Spearmen, the weakest unit in Shogun, abbreviated to YA) and Archers (AR).
I've just been attacked in a river province by a large army of 1500. Because STW can only handle a 960 man army at one time, this means I will have to rout the first full army of 960 off the field and then deal with the other 500 or so as they enter it.
The battle begins. The enemy have four YS, four YA, seven AR in various states of repair, and a heavy cav unit (the enemy Daimyo or faction leader). I have five YS, one YA and four AR's, all with one honour bonus. I'm heavily outnumbered but this will be a bridge battle and experience tells me I have enough troops to repulse the enemy. The only question mark is what sort of honour bonuses the enemy Daimyo brings with him - honour is a major factor in STW.
I decide to emulate the AI's favourite tactic for defending a bridge. I withdraw my army just out of enemy bow range on my side of the bridge. This means he will have to attack over the bridge with no archer support while my archers can fire freely on his advancing units.
He begins by attacking with his four YS. Good - I want him to attack with his best units while my archers have plenty of ammo. My AR's hammer his units as they come across the bridge, and hammer them some more on my side. By the time they reach my own line of YS they are in really bad shape, and a quick attack routs them back across the bridge, where they suffer more missile casualties as they escape. They will not trouble me much more.
Now the enemy advances with his four units of YA, backed by the remnants of his YS and the Daimyo. This time it's his YA's turn to get torn to shreds with my missiles, but now the entire AI army is charging across the bridge, including his own archers. This is the decisive moment to advance with my own melee troops and stop the enemy breakout. My intact YS run toward the bridge but they get there a little late and the enemy has advanced further than I intended. No matter. I can contain the flanks by positioning my archers there while my YS kill the remnants of the enemy melee units.
It takes a little longer than I expected to break the enemy's melee units, but by this time I outnumber them so heavily the result is a foregone conclusion. Pretty soon the entire enemy is routing with the exception of the Daimyo who I have trapped on the bridge. Yippee! I manage to kill the Daimyo. That is going to reduce their morale by an even bigger margin.
Now I have to decide whether to chase them off the field or wait for them to regroup and return with reinforcements. I decide to chase them, because that way the reinforcements usually only arrive in dribs and drabs and one can deal with them piecemeal. But I don't chase quickly, just walk the troops, to try not to tire them out any more than necessary.
Okay the initial AI army has been routed off the field. But where are the AI reinforcements? Oh, here's a unit of YA advancing from the east. I quickly despatch him. Here's another one from the west, with a unit of archers in support. I quickly break them as well.
But by now my army is getting pretty tired with all this chasing, and still I haven't seen the bulk of the AI reinforcements. At last I locate them advancing in a group from the side of the river I started the battle from. It looks like two YS, two YA and one AR. I still have my five YS and four AR pretty much intact, so they shouldn't be a problem.
Oh wait, there's another lone unit of YA advancing from the east. My closest troops are the four AR, and I decide to use all four to ensure the appropriate outcome. So I charge with the four of them and the enemy YA immediately breaks and runs. What a wimp! I assign one AR to the job of chasing this unit off the field, and march the remaining three AR back to the main body of my army.
By this time I have arranged my five YS on the slope of a hill where they are in a strong position, with my three AR on the left flank. The enemy have two units of YS, two of YA and one archer. So I not only outnumber the enemy with my five YS, I also considerably outclass them. My units are by now very tired, but I've already routed three quarters of the enemy and killed his Daimyo. It shouldn't take much to get this last bunch on the run.
But now, something unexpected. A blinking white flag in the unit array. Who the heck is that? I double click on the blinking unit. It's the archers I sent to chase that cowardly unit of YA off the field. I can't believe this! Somehow those lousy peasants have regrouped and are now actually charging my archers! Heck, I didn't expect that!
I try to get the archers to run numerous times but they are caught and can't be extricated. I guess they're just too tired to run away. Will I try to rescue them with my other units of archers? The battle is happening a ways to the rear and by the time they get there the fight will probably be over anyhow. So I just hope those routing archers won't disturb the rest of my army.
By now the main body of the enemy has advanced to within a short distance of my mine. This should be over pretty quick anyhow. The enemy archer unit begins to shoot one of my YS, and I realize I can't wait for them to attack me on the hill. I'll have to take the attack to them. All the more so because yet one more enemy unit has appeared - a YS, advancing very cautiously on the left flank. May as well deal with the others before it gets here.
So here's the final troop disposition (enemy units in red):
_______________________________________AR
_________________________________________YS
____________________________________________YA.YS.YA
______________________________________________________YS
________________________________________YS__YS.YS.YS _____________________________________ AR.AR
YS(distant, stopped) _______________________AR
__________________(wavering)AR
___________________________YA
I attack with my three central YS. Three YS against two YA and one YS. YA cannot stand up to YS for long so I expect a quick rout. Better still, I managed to envelop both flanks of the three enemy units. And I'm attacking downhill. This should be over pretty quickly.
On the left flank, it's a bit tougher. My three AR are now wavering because of the enemy units on the flank and rear, and because that other archer unit has finally routed. So I can't use them to attack. Attacking with routing units always causes them to immediately rout. So they are effectively out of the battle for the moment. That leaves the one YS on the left flank, but he doesn't dare attack his opposing YS because he will no doubt be attacked on his flank by the enemy archer. But I still have my spare YS on the right flank, I was hoping not to commit him because he is my general - but those damned enemy YA just *won't* run! Now is the time.
I charge my general behind the other enemy units, straight toward the enemy archer unit. When it retreats, I will then charge it into the rear of the lone YS on the left flank, at the same time sandwiching it with my other uncommited YS. That should cause a quick rout, then I will use one YS to charge the rear of those blasted YA that just won't die!
I momentarily check another part of the battlefield. Then quickly return to see how my general's charge is going. Oh no! The general has somehow become engaged in the main fight with the three enemy units! I guess their flank must have just got tagged as they ran past.
Now I have to watch helplessly as the YS on the left flank advances together with the archer unit to attack my leftmost YS. But hell, on the right I've got four YS which by now have completely surrounding the two YA and one YS. Surely they must be about to break!
But somehow, they don't. And now my YS on the left is also wavering along with the archer units. I wait anxious seconds to see which side is going to break first. And, you guessed it. It's mine. The YS on the left breaks and then my whole army follows, routing straight through the enemy to be decimated as they run for home.
I had favourable ground, numerical and class superiority, and I'd routed three quarters of the enemy and killed their Daimyo. And still I managed to lose the battle.
I don't know about you guys, but I never have battles in RTW as challenging as this!