What's your preferred standard stack when you're ready to RD?

[RedKnight]

NwK,

Sometimes the AI will come at me with "sacrifices", sometimes not... I think it depends on the level of the general and whether they are ashigaru or samurai. Also I think it even depends on the AI faction; some seem more impetuous than others; some more lame than others. This is at Hard difficulty.

I have always used cavalry to lure out units, since they can move away faster once the arrows start.

[NightwindKing]

Yeah good point.

Well, to speak to the original thread subject: I've just started my march to Kyoto to start Realm Divide, for the first time since getting the game (on Hard). I landed on the coast and have two provinces to go inland (would have been shorter but my allies wouldnt garnt me military access. Jerks.)

So, not sure these are my PREFERRED stacks so much as an experiment to see what works.

Right now, under my Daimyo's son (level 4, full honor) I have 3 units of Elite Shimazu Katana Samurai (with armor bonuses), 2 units of Veteran SKS (with morale bonuses), 5 units of Veteran or Elite Yari Ashigaru (with armor bonuses), 4 Veteran units of Bow Ashigaru (with accuracy bonuses), 3 Veteran units of Naginata Cavalry (with armor bonuses), 2 Elite units of Light Cavalry (with armor bonuses), and my general's unit.

Under my Daimyo (level 3, full honor) I have 4 Veteran units of Naginata Cavalry, 2 Elite units of Katana Samurai Cavalry, 2 Elite units of Naginata Samurai, 5 Veteran units of Bow Ashigaru, 3 units of Elite Yari Ashigaru, and 3 units of Elite Shimazu Katana Samurai.

Before this point I preferred more bowmen-heavy forces, but I dropped some of the bowmen for the naginata folks once I'd brought them up to par, as I'm hoping they'll fare better against the Yari Cavalry-heavy armies of the Oda that I have to go through to get to Kyoto.

[NightwindKing]

NwK,

Sometimes the AI will come at me with "sacrifices", sometimes not... I think it depends on the level of the general and whether they are ashigaru or samurai. Also I think it even depends on the AI faction; some seem more impetuous than others; some more lame than others. This is at Hard difficulty.

I have always used cavalry to lure out units, since they can move away faster once the arrows start.

And I wanted to say that so far I've encountered three types of enemy AI generals:
Type A, Ill call the Wolf, sets-up in a huge block with a large front and splits in half as they advance, without hesitation, straight towards my line. They're the most likely to pull units out of they start taking too much punishment, and they pull-back and re-charge with cavalry more often.

Type B, we'll call the Badger, sits and does nothing for an eternity, and will continue to do so, until my units get within bow range, at which point their entire army lunges for whatever unit of mine got in range first. And they will continue to push at that spot no matter if they're encircled.

Type C, the Idiot, sends a file of single company after single company towards my lines, which I gradually draw-in, pepper with arrows, and flank. And they rout.

[Oleander Ardens]

Depends. However the finest stacks were certainly those Chosokabe with 10-12 samurai archers with 121 accuracy and quick reloading and some monk archers protected by a mix of Naginata and Katana Samurai clad in fine armour with some highly experienced monks and cavalry thrown in. The DLC unit pack was not out yet as those 175 range Samurai would have been also handy.

I invaded the the mainland with 7 or 8 Samurai and Monk stacks. 500000 koku in the treasury and a huge cash flow helped to sustain that military power long enought for the ultimate victory.

[NightwindKing]

Depends. However the finest stacks were certainly those Chosokabe with 10-12 samurai archers with 121 accuracy and quick reloading and some monk archers protected by a mix of Naginata and Katana Samurai clad in fine armour with some highly experienced monks and cavalry thrown in. The DLC unit pack was not out yet as those 175 range Samurai would have been also handy.

I invaded the the mainland with 7 or 8 Samurai and Monk stacks. 500000 koku in the treasury and a huge cash flow helped to sustain that military power long enought for the ultimate victory.

So you're playing like the shogunate, basically ;-)

What is it with everyone loving archers so much? The AI always has an army that consists of 18 units of samurai archers and 2 units of yari ashigaru. What on earth? I prefer balanced stacks myself.

[Monk]

Monks. Lots of monks.

At the start of realm divide (provided I can tech up and prepare for it) I will have 3-4 ashigaru archers, 4-5 units of samurai, 2-3 monk units, some ashigaru axilieries and yari cavalry in each stack. Numbers of stacks is highly variable from campaign to campaign, depends on how well i've maintained my economy over the course of the game. I've hit RD with as few as two stacks before, and still won.

The samurai units i mass will differ depending on what is available to me and what are my clan's strengths, but regardless of clan, I almost always pack in a few monk units for RD. They are like a nuclear option on the battlefield, watching their charge rip through a samurai line is poetry in motion.

[RedKnight]

Monk, that was a real interesting reply. An important factor to point out here - and a fun part of the game - is whether you buckle down and prep deeply for RD, or whether you keep charging forward to take over Japan, with only a slight pause before RDing.

The difference being that the AI isn't as swift as a human (of course), and if you give them time to build up nice forces (samurai and even monks) while you build up uber forces, they will do it. But if you choose to keep moving forward with little pause before tripping RD, it's a very different game... you are largely hitting ashigaru and light cavalry, and fewer generals, while you, of course, don't have the uber forces you could have if you hunkered down for many turns to make everything just the way you like it.

I really like how S2TW has simplified a number of important things compared to previous TW games, but still has tons of things to play with.

Nightwing, I like archers because I like death from afar. Kill them before they can touch you and all that. For one thing, it makes castle take-downs so easy, even if it's a slow process like peeling an onion sometimes. But I suppose I'll eventually try a game where I'm not archer-heavy.

[Oleander Ardens]

So you're playing like the shogunate, basically ;-)

What is it with everyone loving archers so much? The AI always has an army that consists of 18 units of samurai archers and 2 units of yari ashigaru. What on earth? I prefer balanced stacks myself.

Well it depends on the clan. Although I confess that I hardly had any Warrior Monks in my recent Uesi campaign, as I was unable to secure stable alliances and got attacked at naseum by pretty much anybody. So I had to blitz my way to victory with a battle-hardened Ashis lead by fantastic generals suppported by Monks, Ninjas and 1 or two Metzke. The agents are far from a petty detail in any military confrontation.

OA

[andrewt]

Well it depends on the clan. Although I confess that I hardly had any Warrior Monks in my recent Uesi campaign, as I was unable to secure stable alliances and got attacked at naseum by pretty much anybody. So I had to blitz my way to victory with a battle-hardened Ashis lead by fantastic generals suppported by Monks, Ninjas and 1 or two Metzke. The agents are far from a petty detail in any military confrontation.

OA

Archers are a godsend in siege battles, which I dislike. Even in my Date campaign, I'm running 6 archers per stack.

[NightwindKing]

Frustrating thing is I'm having to rush now...my Shimazu campaign is down to only 20 turns left, and I still need 7 provinces and Kyoto. The big holdup is that Oda, my biggest rival, has a seemingly endless supply ot full stacks, and none of them are balanced. Last turn I was attacked by 2 light cavalry and 18 Elite Katana Samurai. Nice.