Hojo campaign: "Half a campaign: Half a Japan"

[patdj]

Hey Drisos. :)

Yeah, I already read that most players pit the archers to the front. Funny thing that I've never done that. I always kept my archers behind spearmen or other infantry (in MTW). The only advantage is that the do not have to retreat when enemies are approaching, essentially it might be due to lazyness. I already thought about your way of defending bridges and have done similar, too. Still, do you block approaching units after they crossed the brige? Or do you really shoot them down so hard that they inmediately rout?
(In my case my archers were out of range of the enemy archers, I just approached them because I wanted to do something. )


Back to topic, then. It's late, but I want to execute the attacks I prepared today. As I told you, I'm invading Yamato, Yamashiro and Tamba with my main armies. I'm launching an attack from two sides on Iga, so they can't backstab me.



He retreats in Tamba, Yamato and Yamashira. Battle of Iga:

Bit of highland, so I'm looking for a good path to get a height advantage myself. This tires my troops a bit. He seems to have two units of Yari Cav and some Ashigaru Samurai. As I approach his Cav with Archers they withdraw and keep doing so till they have a height advantage themselves. Their General is far far away in a forest with slope. I think that one No Dachi unit will do and just send them. Returnig to my archers I see that the Yari Cav started charging. Crap, grave mistake, this is going to be an expensive battle. Fortunately I can send my Heavy Cav in to block them, but they take many causalties as well. My infantry arrives and starts slaughtering them all apart from two that got away. Tallking of slaughtering: his YS kicked my NDs hard, I start raining arrows on them and the withdraw to open field. My horses hunt them down. Battle over, could have done this a lot better.

Situation:



I'm ending the minor siege in Iga next turn and one major in Yamashiro. Next will be Kii and Kawachi. Afterwards I have a stable border he can run against. I'm not expecting any counterattacks that could harm me seriously, but I reorder troops so I'm on the safe side. To be continued tomorrow.



Now, I have some General Questions that ocurred to me during the last 3 or 4 turns:
a) Is the Emperor in Yamashiro of any valour, except the diplomatical one?
b) The AI makes his movements after considering mine, right?
c) If I'm attacking a province, and the AI counterattacks in the opposite direction, am I always defending?
d) When do I use triangle formation? What drawbacks must I consider? Do I inmediately switch back to normal formation after the impact?
e) Does it make sense to let troops rest? I see them tiring out very fast and hardly see any benefit of letting them rest.
f) How do I best deploy the infantry? No Dachis in long, but few rows, so they can cludge aroung the enemy? Cavalry same story? Or more compact? How about the Ashigaru? Should they always remain in line and/or hold position? And archers? Do they hit more of they are in a more squared deploy or if the are in 3 long rows? Does it affect their aiming if they are in loose formation?
g) Are there siege battle where the doors are closed (like MTW) or where there are arrows coming from towers or so?
h) Till now, I never was friendly to Christians, because I feared religious uproars in my provinces. Can somebody explain me, how exactly the different interactions (giving audience, accepting their proposal, building a church, building trading posts) with Christians affect the believe of my Daimyo and my people.

Just wanted to proove I'm still rather new to this came. :D Maybe I'll have some more later. Sorry in advance.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

g) Siege doors always closed unfortunately. No arrows from towers

e) They can regain some energy depending, but it's not really practical to try and rest them

d) I never really used triangle. Maybe if your hitting someone from behind or really want to quicken a battle. Definitely don't combine with hold formation!

f) Archers aim best in 2 rows. Not always practical in 120 man units. Usually for other units I leave them in standard and adjust to fit the terrain and the enemy army.

[patdj]

g) Siege doors always closed unfortunately. No arrows from towers

Thanks for your answers. Till now I only fought sieges against the small castles. They just go uphill and have an entrance, which is not blocked by dors like in MTW. You can just walk in and smash the units standing at the door. Only advantage for the defender is some height advantage and that the enemy must pass the entrance, so you can try to block it with some heavy armoured high class unit. Like in a bridge battle for example.

Indeed, 2 rows for a 120 men archer unit isn't too practical. But if you have three of them you will grow wide anyway, so you could place them after each another instead of aside.

[Wasp]

A) That province gives an honour bonus to every troop produced there.
B) I believe it does, yes.
C) That's a tough one. If the system processes your actions first, you'd be the attacker I think.

H) Christianity in your provinces can be seen with right-clicking. If there's a percentage, it means that that part of the population is Christian. People like a Daimyo with the same religion, so a mainly Buddhist province will be harder to keep loyal.

[Drisos]

Yeah, I already read that most players pit the archers to the front. Funny thing that I've never done that. I always kept my archers behind spearmen or other infantry (in MTW). The only advantage is that the do not have to retreat when enemies are approaching, essentially it might be due to lazyness. I already thought about your way of defending bridges and have done similar, too. Still, do you block approaching units after they crossed the brige? Or do you really shoot them down so hard that they inmediately rout?
(In my case my archers were out of range of the enemy archers, I just approached them because I wanted to do something. )

Having your infantry in front has no big disadvantage either. I like keeping them behind because I hate to get those 'friendly kills' (even if only few)
I usually shoot them down so hard that they rout yes. But depends on how many archers you have, and especially on the enemy's units that are crossing the bridge. Sometimes they don't rout yet, and I have to charge with some cav. (that usually routs them right away so you don't even have to engage)

a) Is the Emperor in Yamashiro of any valour, except the diplomatical one?

That message about his support is only a symbol, I think. Doesn't help. But as Wasp said the region is GREAT for training ANY troops. Always use it to train troops if you have that region.

b) The AI makes his movements after considering mine, right?

Unfortunately, yes. so it 'cheats'.

c) If I'm attacking a province, and the AI counterattacks in the opposite direction, am I always defending?

I don't know how it works.. your attacks are usually cancelled yes. But I do recall lots in variation in what happened at lots of different scenario's in mixed up attacks/defenses. I don't know the general formula.

d) When do I use triangle formation? What drawbacks must I consider? Do I inmediately switch back to normal formation after the impact?

Purely offensive formation if I am correct. I never use it actually I'm afraid. Should be useful when you need a lot of kills in short time. (opposite of holding off the enemy while getting reinforcements)

e) Does it make sense to let troops rest? I see them tiring out very fast and hardly see any benefit of letting them rest.

I almost never do. There's usually no time. However, when you do have time, and the waiting has no other disadvantages: yes, of course, don't go running around.

f) How do I best deploy the infantry? No Dachis in long, but few rows, so they can cludge aroung the enemy? Cavalry same story? Or more compact? How about the Ashigaru? Should they always remain in line and/or hold position? And archers? Do they hit more of they are in a more squared deploy or if the are in 3 long rows? Does it affect their aiming if they are in loose formation?

less rows= offensive
more rows= defensive.

Less rows is quite crappy when you want to circle round the engagement to attack from rear or flank. and the effect isn't that big, usually.

h) Till now, I never was friendly to Christians, because I feared religious uproars in my provinces. Can somebody explain me, how exactly the different interactions (giving audience, accepting their proposal, building a church, building trading posts) with Christians affect the believe of my Daimyo and my people.

Example: "Attack this province next turn." This information should at least raise the probability that he really does so. Are there perhaps similar features in the newer TWs?

Pity indeed that such option isn't there. This is one of the many nice features that S:TW2 has. (in my dreams.. )

I don't think I've ever resisted the temptation to stab them in the back in those circumstances though.

ghehe. :D works fine. I recall attacking the enemy together with an allied daimyo. When he almost defeated the enemy, I started attacking my ally, turning the tide of battle. My former ally routed, and of course I blocked off the bridge, killing his entire army and his daimyo. I think it was Oda. Yeah, these battles have great effect indeed.

[Wasp]

h) Till now, I never was friendly to Christians, because I feared religious uproars in my provinces. Can somebody explain me, how exactly the different interactions (giving audience, accepting their proposal, building a church, building trading posts) with Christians affect the believe of my Daimyo and my people.

I believe that accepting the proposal does nothing yet. Once you build the trading posts and churches, your Daimyo will be Christian, and the whole religious loyalty question begins in your provinces.

[patdj]

Lol honourable Backstabmurais talking.

But yes, I noted that allies join battle sometimes. But I hate fighting with them, because they are way too slow. I only attack if I can crush the enemy (alone). Waiting for an ally is annoying then, so I just bash them and hope that stupid allied archers don't send arrows into my back. Not smart, but never went wrong till now. What sucks is that (at least in MTW) the ally gets the province if he provided the bigger army (of PEASANTS!!! ). I recall biting my keyboard after kicking the Saxons for the sake of peasant-burner Mercia.

Concerning churches: it would be best then to build churches in all provinces at the same time, so you haven't got one half Christians and one half Buddhists. How long does it take for your people to convert (all)?

[Wasp]

To 100%, I believe that takes a few years (spam priests in all provinces to do it quicker).

[patdj]

Ok, thank you. Perhaps in one of the following campains I'll be a Christian.

Well, I did the next turn because I wanted Kawachi befor wintertime. Was a bridge defense and I think I started well:



lured his whole cavalry onto the bridge and shot them down heavily with archers. Than I made a mistake that cost me some men. Shimazu started retreating, and I thought I could hit him hard into the back by rushing my cavalry into him. He turned pretty fast and surrounded me with Yaris. I still kicked him but it could have been a lot easier with more pacience.

End was 880 heads, 530 men lost.


Second I invaded Kii. He had Naginata Cavs (2x), No Dachi and Samurai Archers there. I feared a considerable piece of work, but I lured one NC uphill und smashed them from both sides, he supported them with his General unit, NC aswell. They fell pretty good and started routing after being nearly completely terminated. The NDs and SAs waited in the forest. Was an infantry fight, where I had the better cards. NDs fought to death and the archers routed at half their size.

I regrouped troops for a potential counterattack but I think I have nothing to fear. Need more infantry though. My NDs died out somehow.

[patdj]

Yay, now this get's more interesting:

I've send a bunch of Shinobi to Inaba, his nearest port, to makes his "logistics" a bit more difficult. Guess what happend. Zombie-Takeda, the undead, reemerged there the third time in this campain. He must have it goin with the ladies because his line seems undeletable. I'm fine with that and hope that he does some troublemaking at the Shimazu provinces.
Additionally, Oda is getting ambitious now and attacked two Shimazu provinces. I think he was successfull, too.
Two turns later Takeda got kicked. Short story of success. Prroves that Shimazu is still able to fight. I can't see it properly, but I think, Oda was driven back, as well. My Shinobi caused a Ikko Ikki uproar in Inaba, so Shimazu gets no time to rest. But I do. I'm reinforcing my troops and waiting for a good opportunity to proceed:




Yay, I'm allowed to edit now. THX to whomever. :)