Units who you cannot stand in your armies?

[Monk]

Yeah it's time for a negative thread! Who're some of the units you just cannot stand having in your army?

For me it's Bow Cavalry. This is likely my own hang-up but in my experiments with them I simply couldn't figure out how to use them effectively.

I'm sure there's a way, but the amount of micro needed for them is ridiculous. Add to the fact that foot archers are already pretty powerful and Bow Cavalry risk getting shot up really quickly. The best use i've found for them is simply as highly mobile archers, but even then, I can't justify taking them over normal Bow Samurai - or even Bow Ashigaru.

[Graphic]

Bow Ashigaru

They pale in comparison to samurai archers.

[Forward Observer]

I've had bad luck with bow cavalry also. I put them on skirmish--thinking they'll be OK---then the next thing I know is that they get backed into a tight and get wiped out--when my attention is elsewhere, . Consequently, I simply stopped recruiting them.

However, I just finished a short Takeda campaign and at some point got stuck with a free unit of bow cavalry for completing one of the Bushido arts. They just happened to be in a lower level coastal castle when it got attacked, which meant I had no way to use them outside the fort. The only choice was to dismount them for use as rather weak foot archers. I didn't put them on the wall, but lined them up against the side of the center building. I completely forgot about them until the battle ended.

I was out numbered about 2 to 1, but that's usually manageable--when defending a castle. When it was over--was I surprised to see all 60 of them survived and was even more astounded when I saw that they scored just over 90 kills. I don't know if their kills were from lobbing arrows over the wall or from shooting attackers that made it briefly inside the fort, but it was still the best I have ever done with them.

Cheers

P.S. I also don't bother with the bomb throwers either--for pretty much the same reasons.

[The_Emperor]

Bomb Throwers and Kisho Ninja

small units that require far too much micromanagement to use effectively in majority of battles. Plus the Ninja are just so damn expensive!

Oh and Bow cav.

[A Nerd]

^ ^ I tried the ninja and felt they were not worth the price and the recruitment time. Never tried any bomb throwers.

[Dead Guy]

All of the above except Bow Ashigaru, the mainstay of many an army for me. Bow Ashis with excpetional accuracy bonus (master bow maker + hunters lodge) are good enough and dirt cheap. They're not supposed to fight or get shot at, they're just supposed to hit things with arrows. Bow Samurai are too expensive, you're paying for melee abilities you will/should never use.

I've also never really used Imported Matchlock Ashigaru, since when I did try them out, they were incredibly underwhelming. They barely got a volley off, looked more like a few odd shots that didn't really kill anyone. Because of this I haven't used any gunpowder troops at all.