What is your fighting style?

[smooth_operator]

What is your fighting style in fighting on Shogun 2?
Here are the choices. Please note that I just made them up according to my concept of fighting styles so don't criticize me too harshly. :)

1. Rusher- quickly overwhelms the enemy with a swift downpour of lethality
2. Reserved- likes to wait until the last moment before committing to battle
3. Artillery Man- the "Napoleonic" guy who exploits all his artillery and missile units to pepper the enemy before they get close
4. Ambusher- cunningly conceals men and catches the enemy off-guard
5. Unorthodox- employs out of this world tactics which succeeds most of the time(please detail your strategy)

Now Post!!!

>>>Since I accidentally forgot to put Ambusher in the poll, just post it if you are one. :) Sorry for that.

[Ishmael]

I went for 'Artillery Man' when playing against the AI - whilst I don't actually use artillery all that often, I love to take the missile advantage in a fight and force the enemy to come to me. I figure in a battle against the AI, if I can make the AI attack me I can usually dig in in a fortified position and win quite easily.

[A Nerd]

I rush, but don't always overwhelm. I tend to take high casualties as well. Combination of my men being expendable and my poor generalmanship.

[econ21]

I picked artillery man - I tend to rely on bows to try to get relatively bloodless victories. It shades into reserved, as my standard approach is a wall of spears to protect my archers. I've done that in virtually every TW game since the original STW. I probably should be more aggressive on the flanks and use swords more in the centre, but I tend to let the AI commit before going in for the kill.

My tactics seem to work relatively well in STW2 - archery seems extremely lethal while cavalry is perhaps not as powerful as in some earlier titles. I seldom get the bloodless victory though - the AI is competent and its archers know how to fire back.

[Dead Guy]

I'm a very defensive general, fielding lots of archers and a siege engine or two.

I think this behaviour has been hammered in through the last few titles, where firing at an advancing enemy was often extremely effective, especially in RTW/M2TW with their rather extreme battlefields (mountain sides).

I find that defending a hill is sometimes actually not as effective anymore, because the enemy can fire back as soon as your archers can fire at them, and the AI always sends his archers out first, starts firing, and then send in the infantry. My Ashigaru line gets decimated by the enemy archers if I place them in front of my archers, and if I place archers in front, I lose time when I have to pull them back. I think the most viable tactic is to counter charge downhill when the infantry approaches my archers, but this works best with katanas, and using that makes me vulnerable to center cavalry charges. I mix these approaches up a bit. I often use a mangonel or two, since it often makes the AI attack my position even though I'm technically the attacker, and they can be really devastating if you know where to aim as the enemy advances. They take out a whole lot of horses when they hit cavalry, and can of course be used to cheaply eliminate the enemy leadership.

I rarely rush per se, the battles where I am forced to go on the offense are very slow at first, I skirmish intensly to get the upper hand in an archer duel, or attack a flank with archers, and then I might rush if the AI re-arranges to go for my exposed flanking archers. I almost only use cavalry to charge archers left alone behind the clashing lines, I find that reduces casualties more than charging the rear for morale shock, since arrows are so lethal.

[Andres]

I usually use similar tactics as econ21 and Dead Guy.

Have my archers hide behind a bunch of spears and let the enemy come has been my usual playstyle in previous titles. Now, the enemy finally knows they can fire back, so I sometimes put my archers in front of my spears. Imo, retreating your archers when the enemy infantry charges is less effective than letting your own infantry charge at the charging enemy and have them clash in front of your archers. Currently playing as the Date, I'm slowly starting to occasionally have my No Dachi or Katana samurai charge first and it does have good results. Cavalry isn't as powerful as in previous titles, but still very effective to cause a chain rout when charging a few enemy infantry units in the rear.

Just like Dead Guy, when on the offense, I always try to take down a few units on the enemies' flanks with my archers or try to bait them with my cavalry before really engaging them.