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I finished the project and an update of this will follow today. ~:)
edit: I played but... game got stuck! :dizzy2: two incredible victories but I didn't save the game and it got stuck... :furious3: :furious3: ~:eek: :dizzy2:
try again today.. ~:handball: If I loose those battles this time I'll freak out :freak:
Summer 1543
76 Koku :(
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***********Defence of Buzen***************
The Shimazu daimyo has decided to attack me in Buzen, and he brings a tough army:
My 466 men with a ***-Gen vs. his 691 men with his ***-Daimyo.
Losing Buzen isn't a disaster, but loosing much men is. If I loose Buzen and my army I''m afraid he might invade into Nagato and further too.
I position my 180 sam archers in a line at a hill in the right back of Buzen. My 180 YS are in a line close behind the archers. My two ashigaru units are at the flanks, and my cav archer unit is hidden in a forest between my position and his deploy area. He attack in light rain sadly, good weather would be better because of my archers and their position. If I want to win against his superior infantry, I should first shoot a part of it.
The first unit I see approaching is a Yari cavalry one. Close behind it are 60 yari ashigaru. I move my cav archers into range and start firing his ashigaru, hoping to rout the unit. They don't rout, but this way I manage to shoot a dozen or two before his main army gets close to mine. When it does, I target his yari samurai and wait patiently for them to come closer. When he comes close to my archers, I move down my yari samurai and ashigaru. I keep firing at his yari's during the battle. Despite the height advantage and my ranged fire the enemy is winning the melee battle. My cav archers run out of ammo and I charge his archers with it, it fight well and kills much but is outnumbered. Meanwhile I try to flank his infantry with the ashigaru units, but they rout before engagement, and then my yari samurai rout too. I try to rally them while I keep firing at his infantry, but they keep advancing and my archers rout too. Luckily they don't loose much men.
I loose here. Killed 190, Lost 186. Two of my units gain +1 honour, but I'd rather have won this battle.
*************************************
Having lost Buzen, Shimazu has a large army ready to attack Nagato... I don't have money to train more troops in the West, so I lower Aki and Iwami defences. With some extra units and Nagato as battlefield I should be able to keep the Shimazu off Kanto.
Bad news for our Lord, the Hojo have betrayed us. They are now in alliance with Uesugi and have abandoned our alliance. They'll launch a huge assault on Kai next turn I'm sure. To support Takeda Shingen in this important battle extra forces are sent from Shinano and Izu, which enlarge the Kai army to 960 men.
Takeda clan needs one or two new allies, I think. Facing the Rebels, the Shimazu clan, the Oda clan, the Uesugi clan and the Hojo clan at the same time would be hard.
Autumn 1543
76 Koku :(
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**************Second defence of Kai*****************
The Hojo are treacherous dogs! First they fight on our side against the Uesugi clan, but now they are allied with them and invading their former friends lands. They lauch a massive attack:
On the defending side, Takeda Shingen with 960 Takeda Samurai.
On the attacking side, Hojo Ujiyasu and an Uesugi general with a combined army existing from 1938 Men.
The enemy's have chose light rain for their attack. I have a load of archers so would've approved good weather, but this isn't that bad.
To avoid being attacked from two sides right away, I choose a hill at the right back of Kai, in stead of the bigger hill in the center of Kai. I form an archer line at the front of my army, existing from 7 units of archers, under which Takeda Shingen. Behind that I form a line of infantry, existing from 360 Yari Samurai and 60 Warrior Monks. My two units of cavalry archers are positioned at the hill to in the center of Kai, and I hope to shoot some Hojo units with them.
When the battle starts, I notice Uesugi is close to my main army, and Hojo is close to the range of my cav archers. The Uesugi keep lurking around and I manage to shoot quite some Hojo samurai. They send forward some archers, but I just move a bit back and keep firing. Hojo Ujiyasu seems confused and sends the half of his army round the hill, far away from me. The other half lurks down the hill and gets shot. Some time later, having shot dozens of those Hojo's, I send them back to my main army, because Uesugi is now entering my archer range. I wait till several units are in range and then start shooting them one by one. The first few units loose dozens of men and rout soon. Meanwhile I have my cav archers at his flank firing at him too. He looses numerous Samurai before his first archer units get in range to fire at Takeda Shingen. They shoot a few of his men, but more and more of his units are totally shot down and rout away. When my archers are running out of ammunition I charge the cavalry archers at his destoyed army. Some yari samurai have rallied and attack them, but they rout before engagement. I keep chasing with the cavalry archers, and few of his men escape. Meanwhile my archers and my infantry are still waiting for the bigger Hojo army to arrive. But they seem frightened when they see what happened to the Uesugi army, and after I shoot a few of them, they move back out of range. I didn't think he was really giving up so I didn't chase him. I did move my cavalry archers closer and kept firing, with some success. They kept moving back and they routed when close to the border, by that time my cavalry archers didn't have ammo left and I sadly had them positioned too far away to kill any.
I won. 650 Head taken. 15 Men lost. Four of my units gain +1 Honour.
An incredible result! The Uesugi army is totally destoyed and the Hojo didn't have any positive result either. Takeda Shingen is invincable.
********************************************
I raise taxes to 90%. Shinano loyalty is fine now, and money isn't. I also receive a sad message, the Oda clan has the highest loyalty in Japan. Mine is fine too though.
Shinano indeed launched an attack on Nagato right away. Luckily my reserves from Iwami scared them, they gave up.
I send back very small armies to Shinano and Izu. The danger in the East is away now.
Ha! it went even better this time.~:)Quote:
Originally Posted by drisos
next update wedenesday probably.
Winter 1544
1081 Koku. :) this season was +25%.
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The Sword Dojo is ready in Kai. Though I don't intend to use No-Dachi very much, I'm happy with that. I don't have the money for it now, but the next building in Kai will be a bigger castle.
The rebels attacked me again in Iwami after I moved some troops to nagato. I am heavily outnumbered so give up the battle. I decide to leave Nagato and Suo and move my troops to the east, where they're more useful. I will defend Aki because the port and mine deliver me so much money. In the east with some more troops I can conquer sagami, musashi and kozuke, which will be the first step in total victory, because they'll give me so much money. I hope to get in an alliance with Shimazu too.
***************Third defence of Kai*****************
Meanwhile Kai is attacked again in the east. Hojo brings a ****-Gen and together with the Uesugi they bring 1202 men, this could be a hard battle.
Takeda Shingen has 840 Samurais on his side in this battle. He must win again, or the Takeda clan will probably be destroyed.
I position my main army exactly at the same place as the last time they attacked Kai, at the hill in the right back of Kai. I form an archer line and a infantry line, and position my Cavalry archers closer to the Hojo deploy area.
I fire dozens of Hojo samurai down, keeping my cavalry out of his archers range. When they get up the hill me cavalry archers are on, I move them back to my main army. Meanwhile the Uesugi have decided not to wait for the Hojo army and move into my archers range. But they are just lurking around, and many are shot. However I try to hold some ammunition for the strong Hojo army which is arriving. The Uesugi army already half-shot half-routing when I started firing at the Hojo's. They lost many but still had a big army moving to me rapidly. When they got close I moved down my infantry line, and started the melee battle. Meanwhile a few yari units of the Uesugi came close to my archers and I was forced to melee with them. Luckily they won and I used the archers with no ammo left to chase them, just to keep them routing. I had height advantage and slowly destroyed the Hojo army. After a long battle they started routing and I blocked the way to the border. Almost all of them got killed and my cavalry archers also got some in the chase.
I win. 1002 Heads taken. 183 men lost. 4 of my units gain +1 honour.
**************************************************
The same time Hojo and Uesugi invaded Kai again, Hojo sent an army into Izu. I am heavily outnumbered and retreat. I position a small army in Suruga and get ready for an attack on the Hojo. I now have money for it, first lets train some units:
In Kai: 120 Yari Samurai, 60 Samurai Archers and 60 Yari Cavalry.
I also drop tax to 75% in the hope rebellion will occur in Izu.
To the west of my territory, the Oda are getting more and more strong. They just reqoncuered Mino.
Spring 1544
881 Koku
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***************Fourth defence of Kai*****************
With those two huge victories in the near past, the Uesugi clan and the Hojo clan are nearly destroyed. But they don't give it up, they attack me once again in Kai. Again it's an important battle, but not very hard.
Takeda Shingen with 720 Samurais against the Hojo and the Uesugi with 828 men.
They attack in good weather, and I hope that I don't need to use as much infantry as last time. I want them to survive so I can reconquer Izu and maybe conquer Sagami soon. I use the same position and formation as the last two battles in Kai.
This time the Uesugi general acts stupid and attacks my unit of Cavalry archers. That's stupid because my unit is lots stronger and I loose 13 men only in the battle. He lost his gen and a unit. The battle ends not very exciting, Hojo and Uesugi move in and out my archers range until the time limit is reached. I shoot a few, but not much.
I win. 93 men shot down - 13 lost. one unit gains honour +1.
***********************************************
In the west I only have Aki left and soon my men will go aboard a ship to the east.
I'm afraid Hojo will attack again next turn, because he didn't loose many men in this battle. Because of that I'll wait with attacking myself.
I wish I was a better STW player..
Well feel free to ask anything on stw gameplay in this forum ~:)Quote:
Originally Posted by NeonGod
reporting another year today... but after that some 47Ronin business... maybe I'll continue next week
Summer 1544
506 Koku :)
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Good news on the diplomatic side: The Shimazu lord sent an emissary and I have a new ally. The western regions are more secure again now.
Takeda Nobushige is now 16 years old and appears to have a Yari Cavalry unit. He stays in Kai, with some troops which I move in from Suruga and Shinano.
I send Shingen to attack Sagami, with 240 Samurai Archers and 240 Yari Samurai on his side, an important battle.
Meanwhile I send some men from Aki to Totomi, to reinforce my eastern lands.
Autumn 1544
206 Koku - I'll get more soon.
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****************Fifth Defence of Kai****************
The Hojo and Uesugi forces form a new army, for one last attempt to break the Takeda Clan's power. Nobushige defends Kai with 474 Men, and he has to defeat 642 Men.
I don't have a very big army this time, and it'll be hard. I group two units of Cavalry Archers and position them on the mountain in the center of Kai. The rest of my ranged I put in line at a hill in the right back of the region. I have two units of Yari Samurai, which I position behind those.
Once again, in the beginning of the battle I start shooting the Hojo. They move too slow and don't use their archers, I shoot dozens of them. When they get up the hill they start firing and I move back to the rest of my army.
This time, the enemy's timing is good. The two armies approach me at the same time and I am outnumbered. I do destroy and rout some of the enemy units, but when I charge down my Yari Samurai, I am still outnumbered. To my luck, the Uesugi general starts routing at the very same moment. Then the entire Uesugi army routs, and I start firing the Hojo. The Hojo rout soon too, and with a fast move of my Yari Samurai I block the way. Not many of them survive and I chase them with my Cavalry archers, and Nobushige. The Hojo Clan is totally destroyed, and the Uesugi didn't achieve much either.
I win. Killed 573. Lost 131. Four units gain Honour +1. One unit gains +2 Honour. An important and luckily great victory.
*********************************************
***************Attack on Sagami*****************
Meanwhile, Shingen leads the attack on Sagami, with 480 Men on his side against 455. An important battle, as Sagami is a rich region.
I put my archers in line, and my Yari Samurai in a line behind them. Though Shingen is one of the archers, I'm going to skirmish.
When the battle starts I see the Hojo spread their army over the back of Sagami, and I start moving towards it. I outnumber his units one by one, while totally destroying them with Archer fire. The rest of his units sees it's hopeless, and starts routing. I keep firing but the major part of his army survives.
I win, Killed 142, Lost 5. An Important victory, as the Posession of Sagami is good for my economy.
***********************************************
With the conquering of Sagami, I gain some money. When I also destroy the buildings, I have a total of 1531 Koku now.
I start building a bigger castle in Kai.
I start building an Archer Dojo in Shinano.
I train 60 No-Dachi Samurai in Kai. I'll run out of Koku right away, but it's already Autumn so that's no problem.
Winter 1545
1041 Koku :)
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I train 60 Samurai Archers in Kai. I also train 60 Yari Samurai in Aki, which will go to the east too.
The Hojo clan is defeated. In Izu their army is very tiny, and his last men in the Sagami castle will soon have no food left and die too.
Meanwhile, the Oda is fighting with the rebels again, and he's not very strong anymore. That's only good news.
After the Defeat of the Hojo clan, I'll start invading the Uesugi lands, and become the strongest clan there is. The Shogunate will be a Takeda one...
Spring 1545
741 Koku :)
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The Archers Dojo in Shinano is ready. Good, now I start building a Yari Dojo there.
A loyalistic revolt appears in Izu. Samurai and Ashigaru who support the Takeda Clan, has risen against their new master, the Hojo lord. I am very greatful to the Rebels, and help them by sending more units from Sagami and Kai.
I put tax up to 90%.
I train 60 Yari Samurai in Kai. My army is now bigger then Uesugi's.
I'm impressed by your generalship :charge: There is a reason I always would lose to you in mp, ~:cheers:
Thanks for the reply fellow-taisho Nodachisam :bow:
Thanks... But I doubt I'm much better then you... Multiplayer and Singleplayer and rather different. In Multiplayer I'm not one of the best, but in Singleplayer I defeat the AI at expert rather easily.Quote:
Originally Posted by NodachiSam
Well if this thread isn't really helpful please ask me things about generalship... I don't mind passing on what others have learned me... I you ever decide to play MP I'd like to help you improve.. I'm sure you wouldn't lose always after the first battles. ~:)
:bow:
47Ronin Drisos
ps: I tried to write the last year or two more like a story... do you like it? I hope I find some time to continue next week
I like the narrative style, it reminds me of Olaf the Brave's russian camp in MTW mainhall. Pictures would be great too. You can make tag files into jpeg with irfanview and put them online with photobucket. They are a great host.~:cheers: Only if you have the time and endurance though, hehe.~:cheers:
Yeah I shall try to do some battle pics sometime too~:) I have done that before.. but mostly during a campaign I forget to.. too busy winning against the enemy ~;)
thanks for the battles saturday m8!! was fun~:) hope to see you in mp sometime soon again:bow:
No more compaign updates?
Sorry NeonGod...
Lately I've not found much free time in which I was not playing stw mp... so I got few chance to play sp. I did, but as you know I created that other thread instead on continuing here. Thanks for asking for it.. now I know there's some people who read this and like it I'll try harder to update soon ~:)
:bow:
It's all good. You don't need to play SP if you'd rather not. It was kind of enlightening, though - I picked up a few ideas that I never used and I guess that's why I still struggle with STW's campaign.
Good to hear ~:cool: Any questions on campaigns or whatever else in shogun just ask me... I'm not an expert but I might be able to help with some things ~;)
Summer 1545
341 Koku
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*****************Second attack on Izu********************
Our samurais are on their way to the defeat of the Hojo clan. Their Daimyo has only the protection of 10 heavy armoured mounted samurai. The local people who are revolting have got reinforcements which were sent by Takeda Shingen. The 11 enemies are skilled and heavily armoured so our great general must try to keep losses to a minimum.
At the start of the battle, Shingen and the other Yumi samurai march at the front, towards the Hojo leader. After a while they can target him and 5 of his guards get shot. Then he moves away to the southeast corner of Izu, to be chased by the takeda Yari units. After a long period of running after the enemy, the Takeda Yari block all ways out of the southeast corner and Hojo can't avoid engagement. Then he engages with one of the units, but he has no chance to win. He quickly gets attacked from the back and loses all his leftover guards. The Daimyo himself keep up the fight quite long and kills several samurai, but he can't escape and is eliminated.
We got back our loyal region Izu, and permanently defeated the Hojo clan. We killed all 11 but we lost 18 men.
******************************************************
While their leader gets killed quite a distance to the west of them, Hojo's fatigued army in the Sagami Castle is defeated. The traitors got what they deserved! Now there's 4 enemies left for us; Shimazu, Imagawa, Oda and Uesugi.
With the reconquering of Izu our funds are increased to 466 Koku. Nobutora sets the taxes to 100%, as our people seem to be loyal enough.
60 Men of yari cavalry are trained in Kai, because Shingen wants some cavalry for the soon-to-come attack on the Musashi region. Musashi is weakly defended and will increase our income greatly.
Troops from Aki arrive in the eastern part of the Takeda lands meanwhile.
Autumn 1545
91 Koku :(
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The Daimyo's son Shingen is launching a big attack on Musashi. He bring an army of 655 Samurais. Three units of Yumi Samurai, 4 units of Yari Samurai, 60 No-Dachi Samurai, 120 Yari Ashigaru and 55 Yari Cavalrists. The enemy army is quite smaller, and has a two-star general.
Though our defences are good, we fear an attack by the Oda Lord. Their armies are big and they don't seem to do anything with them.
It's still Takeda versus four other clans, we hope that they attack eachother sometime so we get a bit rest.
Winter 1546
1572 Koku :D Money is rolling in
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******************The big attack on Musashi********************
Takeda Shingen leads this attack on the rich lands of Musashi, he brings an army of 655 Men, exsiting from 240 Yari Samurai, 180 Yumi Samurai, 120 Yari Ashigaru, 60 No-dachi Samurai and 55 Yari Cavalry. The enemy is an Uesugi army, which has 439 Warriors and is led by a 2-star general. It's coming out as victor on a river attack but we count on our superior melee infantry.
At the start of battle, Shingen moves two units of Yumi Samurai to the coastline of the river, on at each side of the bridge. He places his own unit right behind the bridge but at certain distance, and his melee is close to him, waiting cross the bridge. First go the 120 Yari Ashigaru and 60 Yari Samurai, all with honour 3. But they get totally shot down and only the Samurai engage with incoming enemy Yari's, while Shingen's bows are making many victims. Ranged fire kills many enemies but even after our Lord sent more units past the bridge all of them flee away. Luckily they rally and team up with the other melee units for a second attack, instead of going home and losing their honour. Unfortunately, the second attack doesn't have much better results then the first. Only few units engage, to rout shortly after it. After this engagment the Uesugi think they can finish it and target our Yumi Samurai after a short move forward, but fortunately our firepower is superior and we kill much. After a short period of this, Shingen starts to run out of arrows and sends the Yumi Samurai and the rallied cavalry to cross the bridge in one last attempt. This time his men don't rout, and the Yari Cavalry engage with the enemy general. After a short period his general's unit is almost destroyed, and the enemies run away suddenly. After that our Yari Cavalry makes the result a little less bad, by killing many in the chase.
I win, but the results aren't good. We bring with us 384 enemy heads, but the blood of 439 fallen Takeda warriors has turned the Musashi river red. This is a big loss, but at least we now have Musashi.
************************************************************
With the conquering of Musashi and the destroying of the buildings I gain much Koku, which makes the total to 2547 Koku! Meanwhile the third degree of a castle is reached in Kai, and I start building a famous Swordsmith there. With the money gained in Shinano, I build a Yari Dojo in Shinano, a famous Yari Dojo in Aki and I train 60 Buddist Warrior Monks. In Musashi I have a harbor and 40% improved farmlands, and I'm building the same in Sagami, to increase my income even more. The Uesugi have some men left in the Edo castle of Musashi and we guess they have about 480 Samurai in Kozuke and Shimosa, so they're still kind of strong and we must be prepared for a contra-attack maybe.
Spring 1546
597 Koku :s
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I still have some Koku left, so I train 60 more Yari cavalry in Kai. They will be useful in the war with the Uesugi Yumi Samurai.
With Aki, Mikawa, Shinano, Sagami and big armies in those I have very strong defenline now. But to become Shogun I'll need to attack so I'll need to abandon those later on.
The Takeda Family:
Nobutora**** 53 years old
Shingen****** 25 years old
Nobushige** 18 years old
Nobukado - 10 years old
Katsuyori - 0 years old
Hooray, more updates. That bridge battle sounded intense. Is there really no good way to cross a bridge?
It was quite intense indeed... in fact I pretty much messed it up. Normally I get better results because I use my hamamoto to cross the bridge and get their inf in my archers range. I repeat that till I shoot about all his inf and then rout them all with melee cavalry.:charge: ~:)
~:cheers:
Something tells me I'd botch that up badly if I tried it. What about naginata troops?
Winning a bridge battle against the AI can be accomplished very easily if you use this tactic. Take 6-8 archers, 2 ashigaru, and the rest Yari samurai (at least 6). If you choose to take 6 archers instead of 8, take 2 melee cav (yari or nag; heavy are too slow). Line archers up along the bank, each unit 2 rows deep (if you don't have room, arrange them as you can, as close to the edge as possible). Shape your spear units in such a way that they can march across the bridge easily (3-4 columns wide). Keep your cav back until the end of the battle, and shape them in coulmns 2-3 wide to move across the bridge (reshape once you cross).
Then, use your ashigaru first, marching them across the bridge until the enemy archers/gunners start firing. Then run them forward. When the enemy infantry moves forward to attack them, time it just right and pull them back across the bridge to your side, leading the attacking infantry (and cavalry, if any) into your archers' fire. Do not let your archers fire at will; manually choose your firing times to maximize enemy casualties. Once your ashi get back across (you will lose a lot at first, but they are ashi soo ...), let that unit rest and use the next one and repeat. Then use your Yaris, one at a time, and repeat. If the enemy cav charge, do the same thing, but if they come across the bridge, turn your spearmen around and bottle them up in the middle of it, and slaughter them.
When it is obvious that their infantry and cav are decimated, lead your entire remaining army over the bridge. If you opted to take cav, you can race them across (avoiding spears of course) and move them to either flank of the enemy. When the rest of your army infantry comes screaming over the bridge (melee first, then archers), time it right and send the cav after the archers/gunners on the flanks, from both sides at once. As long as you've decimated the enemy infantry and cav with your ranged units using the bait tactic, you will likely route the enemy easily. Then just stay on their butts and chase them off the field.
You will lose a lot of spearmen, so be sure to have some in reserve as replacements in a neighboring province, to move into and hold the province you've just taken on the next turn. If you manage things right, you shouldn't lose many archers or cav in the battle.
A classic small-scale battle like this takes place in Shimosa if you are Uesugi attacking Hojo very early in the game (turn 3, Sengoku Jidai--Macrogoal: eliminate Hojo; microgoal: eliminate Hojo capital, main troop production).
I think No Dachi and monks are a liability in a bridge battle, for obvious reasons. My advice is, don't use them. Naginata Infantry work ok but are slow and expensive and tire fast because of their heavy armor. They also have low base morale. Ninja work great at protecting your side of the bridge from any chasers that might make it across. Same with Kensai. But I avoid using them--particularly kensai, to cross over until the end, cuz they tend to get shot, particularly if the enemy has guns.
I always fight bridge battles myself (never autoresolve in SP), and win them 98% of the time. If I lose, it's usually because the enemy had a huge defending army and I wasn't able to attrition the cav and infantry enough with my ranged units before crossing the bridge.
In small bridge battles you can do great things with all cav, if you are fast and get across the bridge before taking too many casualties from ranged fire. Use yari, nag and cav archers to bracket the enemy position from either side, then use push/pull/push/pull until they route, then ride them down. I do this in the very beginning of the Takeda campaign, attacking the Hojo in Musashi on the first turn. It's delicate, but fun.
Thanks Toga for the details advice on this kind of battle ~:)
I'm quite sure your method will work all the time... but both have small armies I think I'll hold on to using my daimyo as bait ~:) He simply never dies in archer fire. This way he runs out of ammo and you can shoot his infantry.~:)
I lost (too) much men in that battle... but at least I have Musashi now >> +1000 Koku bonus and about 1000 a year too~:)
:charge:
Yep, I do this too, particularly with the Takeda during the first few years of a campaign, before I have amassed a large nuymber of troops.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drisos
Whatever works, I just thought I'd share this (relatively well known) tactic as someone further up the thread was asking about how to successfully approach a bridge battle.