Positioning units for bridge defences

[Kloreep]

It's most likely that your units are too crowded.

Ah, so that is the problem. I guess I'll have to loosen my spacing for those river battles. As you say, you generally don't need more than a couple units at a time to hold the bridge.

Naginta or YS are good for this role. If you place them too close during deployment they will move out as soon as the battle starts - this can be disastrous.

Yes, this is exactly what has happened to me at times - all my Yari Sams turning and walking away at the start of the battle! I like to keep my Naginata & Yari Sams near the bridge standing pretty close, so that I can easily defend with one or the other depending on whether my enemy brings cavalry or foot soldiers; but I guess I'll just have to give them more space, and perhaps simply commit to opening the defense with one or the other.

How are you positioning your units? I tend to favour click and drag selection to get my units positioned both before and during battle.

I tend to just click, and use ALT + Click at times to make sure they face the right way. That two-step process isn't exactly quick, though, so perhaps I should use the drag positioning more.

Also, being too close to the border, or being too close to water might make 'em do weird things.

Ah, that would explain why bridge battles are particularly troublesome.

Good luck!

Thanks. :)

[Wishazu]

Welcome to the Sword Dojo Kloreep.

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org, Kloreep!


Positioning is indeed key to keeping your units from "shuffling" about, especially on defensive bridge battles. I tend to use either a "V" formation or "trapezoid" formation, depending on whether I'm deploying 2 or 3 units at the end of the bridge (respectively); this seems to do a good job of keeping my troops still, so long as they're not bunched up.


EDIT: You should let us know how things turn out! I'm curious to see how it goes.

[caravel]

I also favour a "chevron" formation when defending bridges, though a box formation may work better in many cases (especially if you have enough units of the right type to pull it off). This strategy works better than placing a few units facing the bridge as it means the enemy are immediately flanked when they cross the bridge. Keep them under fire with your archers and you will break their resolve soon enough.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I tend to take a similar approach when defending bridges. Getting too close to the waters edge will bring your units under archer/teppo fire from the opposite bank......something you want to stay away from when defending against a multiple-stack invasion (where you really need to minimize losses).

I keep my troops far enough away from the river to force enemy archers/teppo to have to cross to my side or bunch up on the bridge. I generally keep a loose horseshoe formation with infantry to the front backed up by archers. When guns become available, holding bridges is so easy it's almost a crime.....even against 3000-5000 attackers

I conserve my cavalry for crossing the bridge to chase off enemy CA and SA after all enemy infantry and cav have routed off the map.

[Kloreep]

Thanks for all the welcomes and replies. :)

Making the enemy's bridge approach one side of a triangle sounds like a good suggestion. At the start of the game, I sometimes only have one or two units, so there's not much for it but to put them right up at the bridge foot. I've continued to just place a unit or two right in front of the bridge even when I have more soldiers, figuring that keeping the enemy on the bridge is the best way to disadvantage them. Really, though, coming from all sides sounds a lot more effective.

Staying away from the bridge area as a whole is an interesting suggestion as well, and one I hadn't considered. I'm usually too tempted to line my own archers up along the riverbank to consider keeping my troops out of enemy archer fire. (Guns are the one game element I haven't had experience with yet, so I guess that will be a new element for me to figure out as I play a campaign through.) Exactly how far do you keep them away? Maybe I should search around on youtube for some examples; this seems like a game where very marginal shifts can make a huge difference.

[Wishazu]

If you read some of the campaign reports here I`m sure you`ll come across screenshots etc. of some of the resident players defending bridges, they might help you out.