monks getting shot

Hello people,

i have a question about monks. I was in an archer shoot out and my monks (and other units as well) were behind my archers and were getting shot up worse than the archers( i am certain the archers were the direct targets of the enemy)

Here is the Q: what do you guys do in that situation? Retreat them a bit. That might get you into trouble if the opponent attacks.

Help!

Thank you for any info.

Hirosito Mori

Yes, apparently the disadvantage to warrior monks is that they have very weak armour, I find they always suffer worst from any indirect or direct fire. I would suggest either placing your monks at the flank of the unit being fired upon, or just minimising deaths by putting them in loose formation - they work well in this mode anyway. Just make sure you watch the bar to see if any of your units are under attack, I needlessly lost about 50 men who did not even enter combat from pesky archer fire.
You could always just use a better armoured unit for defense like yari samurai or naginata.

I like to use Ashis to cover my archers/gunners. They work well to stymie an assault and if the opponent waste arrows on them, well that's good too http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

Thank you,

Sengoku and Black Ship. what you said BS i had really not thought of. But looking back on the forum those kind of insights i have come to expect from you.
BTW how big is the game in the US because most players on this forum post from there?

Hirosito Mori

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A warrior's wisdom is shown in the treating of his defeated opponent http://cgi.tripod.com/smilecwm/cgi-bin/s/owen/sid.gif

Hirosito,

Good question. As you can see there are different schools here. What I tend to do (specially if I have monks or no dachi) is to move any other unit away from archers or muskets. If there is a hill nearby I will put them behind. If the enemy charges there is always plenty of time to move your HTH units in position to defend or counter attack.

So in short I tend to leave my ranged fire units away of my main army during shoot outs to avoid the type of casualties you point out. But not too far away either; I just try to avoid unnecessary casulaties.

Now this has some other disadvantges because units away from main army will rout faster if you dont take care of them properly, but so do your opponents if they are also separated from main army. If they are close to main army then you know you are going to have some "additional" kills http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

Metha

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"...Violence is the last resort of the incompetent..."

I don't keep monks or no-dachis behind units under fire. To one side usually solves the problem. There don't seem to be nearly as many "accidental" casualties when a unit is beside the target.

When in range, I use yaris to back up archers. Usually, only a few die to wayward arrows, due to their adequate armor.
If you keep yaris right behind and a monk unit to one side, you can use the yaris to hold a charging enemy, then sweep in with the monks to flank them.

Archer/yari/monk makes a good team.