When I got tired of 'traditional' campaigns and played just to have fun without regard to strict clan unit choices, I came up with the perfect 'bridge-busting' army-----15 BFN + 1 KenseiCan be done in any weather, but absolutely killer in heavy fog. The BFN cross the bridge (fire-at-will off, of course) and take up their positions. Then the Kensei steps into view on the bridge and all hell breaks loose. Almost fell out my chair laughing the first time I tried it. A 4 or 5 star Kensei general is.....well.....frightening....
I've actually come across your post where you first described this and I'm still waiting to get the opportunity to give this a try. I've used 4 BFN with a more normal army while bridge crossing and I copied the tactic but I'm sure it works way better with 15 BFN lol The next campaign I'm going to record after my Oda one is going to be an Imagawa one. I'll try to build that army and get them into a river battle. It's too bad every thing in that army takes so long to train...this might end up being a long campaign If it happens you'll be sure that I post a video of it and give you a shout out for the inspiration



Went as far back as 2002, but couldn't find what I was looking for, so I will attempt a crude drawing:


YS-YS-YS-YS-YS.....................YS-YS-YS-YS-YS

...................G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G..................

YS is obviously a formation of Yari Samurai (or Ashigaru), and G for your Teppo (the numbers shown are irrelevant and for display only). You tilt the left units' left flank slightly forward, and the right units' right flank slightly forward forming a slight V inclined into your guns. A cavalry charge inevitably 'hangs' its' corners on the spear formations and slows considerably. If you time it right, your guns deliver one last deadly volley at close range before moving back and the Yari clamp the vise shut. Sounds complicated, but really it's not after a few go arounds with it. You don't get as many friendly fire casualties as you might think. You can check the battle log to verify those numbers. It's not very much different than what Oda Nobunaga did at Nagashino. Instead of a mobile spear wall covering the guns, Oda used fixed fortifications to funnel Takeda cavalry into his guns. Same result....lots of dead horsemen....

Remember my description of the Oda 1580 showdown in Mino with Takeda and Imagawa? This technique crushes Takeda's cavalry including those gold armor Heavy Cav he brings. After a few attempted charges, the only thing left are his Cavalry Archers. The name Hedgehog comes from what the formation looks like if you link 3 gun units and six spear units together. It resembles what's known in farming country as a hedgehog....
Got it, I appreciate the description. That'll come in handy when I finally get around to playing the 1580 Oda campaign. That actually could've worked well with my Shimazu army comps. Hmm you're definitely giving me some thoughts on how to rework my army strats. I'm actually going to start playing some Medieval later this year and I'm curious as to the effectiveness of gun strats in the late era in that game.



Oh, it's sometimes more, especially on defense. I'm a cavalry man at heart, and I use them extensively. Comes in very handy when the AI tries one of its' bum-rush flanking attempts, where its' entire army moves to either one of your flanks. On flat to rolling terrain, I might have as many as 4 Cavalry Archers, and I've had battles where I completely rout enemy SA's because I'm giving them flanking or rear fire as they struggle to keep up with their main force. It is soooo much fun to be disruptive and a complete pain-in-the-ass for the AI. Be honest, how many times has the AI had you muttering under your breath as you try and chase off those @#$%-*&^% Cavalry Archers?... And you play with the timer, I don't. You absolutely need cavalry to chase off broken units and routers to conserve ammo. If you had fought the entire 9000+ in Hida without a timer, good chance you would have lost as you'd have been completely out of ammo half way through, and your troops too tired to fight well...



In my experience, HC are too slow to cover for CA, and they tire quickly. Better to use YC, IMHO. Besides, HC like NC are for breaking infantry lines, no?
See it's times like this where I wish youtube existed when this game first came out because I'd really like to see how ya'll actually played this game back then. I've admittedly dumbed down a lot of my micro decisions (and army comp decisions) by using an imperfect group formation system as well as being very slow and methodical with my army movements. For the most part I play high and tight, I keep my army together and move from terrain advantage to terrain advantage until the enemy A.I. has no choice but to take a bad engagement. I'll do this even when I'm playing with cav heavy armies. My Takeda army comp has 5 CA, 4 HC, 3 YS, 3SA, and 1 YC and I'll still move and fight with that army in a very similar way that I do with my infantry heavy armies. Personally I feel like a lot of this comes down to the clunkiness of the controls and the camera and even the unit responsiveness (more precisely the lack of). Therefore I've made a lot of decisions to intentionally dumb down my battle micro while still maintaining a respectable degree of competence in my tactics.

However when I read your posts (and others) describing your cav play where quite frankly you're fighting with light cav the way they were intended to be used I become very curious. I mean I've had units of CA and YC just run right off the battlefield because they were tired and their backs were facing the enemy (because you know...I was using them mislead and redirect enemy units). And yet here I'm reading you describe your cavalry play and my imagination fails me. Like how did you people play this game?!