Guide of Bait Tactics

[Maltz]

Two. Anticipate thy Enemy

"My lord, we arrived at the battlefield earlier than Shimazu. Where should we deploy?"
"Have you played cards? A good player plays the enemy's cards, not his. A good general deploys according to where the enemy deploys."
"But Shimazu is not here yet."
"That's true. However, here is a quote from The Art of Gore..."




3. Anticipate thy enemy who defend. They like trees. They LOVE hills.

"Hm, there are some hills on Shimazu's side (A). There is also a pretty large hill with trees on our side (B). Which one will Shimazu choose to defend?"
"Hm, our hill (B) is certainly more attractive since it has trees grown on it. Does this mean that Shimazu will try to rob our hills? This brings me back to the Battle of Tsukushi."
"How about we deploy on our hill (B)? If Shimazu comes, we can defend. If they do not come, we decide where to move our army to."
"Good idea."

Note: If there is no Hill A, the AI is likely to make a run to Hill B even if we are already on the hill! This has been observed in so many other battles (such as my Hattori's campaign's Battle of Kyoto). However, since the AI already has some attractive terrain within its deployment zone, it probably will not move. If the AI makes a run to our hill, we can defend the hill and intercept the AI's cavalry followed by infantry, or we can purposely deploy away from their destination to carry on with Bait Tactics.