I came, I saw, I... was conquered? A Shogun 2 Oda AAR

[muha]

PART 19


Turn 41, year 1555, spring

This is the year that will decide how my clan will progress in the future. maybe things will turn around after all.

Totomi is suffering from some unrest, if they revolt I will probably bribe them too.



Now for that Hattori army, they moved away from the bridge closer to Owari, I prepared as much as I could, now it is time to attack them!



My main army consists of all infantry, they will attack them directly.




The side army, reinforcements, is all cavalry. Hopefully the AI will use it properly.




Here we go.



Many samurai to deal with. I wish I could auto-resolve this...

The speech:







This will be complicated... the fighting will happen in a forest... I will try to take full advantage of it as well.




Here is my army,




Three ranks deep, spear-arrow-spear with matchlock at the left flank, and general with samurai at the back.

I will lose many men here, better not commit all my forces all at once. So I will use waves.

Seems the AI will ALWAYS use a hill...




Here is the tactical map of things:




This is an important battle, so i might pause to take screen shots.

As soon as I start to repositioning my army, the enemy responds and change their position.




Now Only they have the advantage of forested area.

I decide to play it safe and move my forces back to reposition for a more convenient attack angle.




All that running made my men tired... so now we sit and wait for 5 minutes for them to rest.

Satisfied with my new positioning, my men slowly begin to move towards the trees were the enemy hides waiting to ambush me.





the first of such units pop up.




Their target loses 100 men faster then I could blink!




But it cant be helped. The first wave moves towards the wooded area.




There were three enemy units in one, that explains my loses, they took some fire, and their casualties were not few either




Yes, I do not mind the friendly fire.





The enemy archers rout, time to move into the trees.




The battle lines meet!




Their actual battle line turned out be much farther then I have expected. I move my army forward. And something I did not even noticed




samurai archers and samurai cavalry, just sitting there.. they will be dealt with in due time.

Fighting over forested area is really difficult, mostly because you cant SEE whats happening..




Turned out my battle line was not a line at all... two small groups each hitting a flank in the enemy army, their center was in tact.. So I will have to commit the rest of my army once their battle line becomes more disturbed and loses the line part. But such opportunity does not show itself.

my men in the woods start wavering, I order the to retreat. Seems like the enemy followed them.




Reinforcements are finally here!



Then it hits me... the AI does not control my reinforcements... does it? Oh well, in here cavalry is not nearly as useful as I would like it to be.

They now charge down hill at my army at full force!






Seems my general (The one in the reinforcing army) arrived on time!




Both enemy generals are now engaged in melee combat




They had troops hiding EVERYWHERE! they keep coming out of nowhere..




Units are running away from both sides. But I have more units that can run away, this is a battle of attrition.





I don't know if its just the Hattori, but they are REALLY good at hiding.. keep appearing at my flanks or behind my lines, and its not just them running around either..




I accidentally lost my matchlocks.. seems like some enemy archers decided to duke it out with their swords. I send my samurai to test their skill.




They keep popping up, they fight hard and long, but In the end, the enemy just could not cope with my constant pressure, and one by one, they shattered!






The battle is won, but most of it was fought in the woods, so I myself did not see anything, I just did like a Chinese general and kept sending in forces until there was either nothing else to send or the enemy is no more.

Surprisingly, my loses were not as bad as I thought they would be..




The Daimyo takes what forces he can take and sets up camp over the bridge, Nobuyuki is sent to Owari.