Republican campaign?

[Trithemius]

I've only ever tried fully modern, so I don't know for sure whether you can still recruit shinobi -but i guess you ought to be.

I'd not actually faced a high level traditional army until recently and it has left me suitably impressed with the charge/melee prowess of Katana Kachi. Without a defence in depth or an incline/hill to deploy on for overlapping fire zones, a modern army can be vulnerable. I did kill alot of them though and was facing 2 full stacks with only 1, deployed on a plain (in fog).

I found even yari kachi to be pretty horrible in defensive sieges! I had one enemy katana kachi unit kill three hundred men in stand-up fights at a parapet!
I'm going Nagaoka, so my rifles are reloading pretty fast - but I find some yari or katana can be good to take the edge off an enemy charge. It does require a bit of micro to avoid them being cut to shreds by "friendly" rifle-fire though!

[edbenedict77]

I found even yari kachi to be pretty horrible in defensive sieges! I had one enemy katana kachi unit kill three hundred men in stand-up fights at a parapet!
I'm going Nagaoka, so my rifles are reloading pretty fast - but I find some yari or katana can be good to take the edge off an enemy charge. It does require a bit of micro to avoid them being cut to shreds by "friendly" rifle-fire though!

The trick is to get the yari or katana kachi on the rear flank of the enemy so there by you reduce the friendly fire casualties, by micro managing your riflemen to bayonet charge after 2-3 volleys, after the yari or katana engage the enemy from the rear.