Bejeezus, what a long battle

[kagemushashingen]

Call me a sado-masochist (or an outright addict)...but I just finished the longest battle (read, BATTLE, not campaign) I'd ever conducted since playing STW 6 months ago.

Ok so the shimazu daimyo and his horde of 12,000 high tech soldiers decide to invade Omi, which housed my uesugi heir and his 2000 soldiers. I saved the game and hit auto-resolve. Ouch, I lost the battle, only taking 500 heads. I thought for a while, what the heck....why dont i just go give it a shoot. And so I played. figuring that if Tokugawa had done it, I could do it...and I had tiem to spend.

So I attacked the 1st wave, took them out and placed my troops on a defensive position on top of a knoll, with my line of musketeers being my 1st line of defense, my monks and naginatas in the middle and the flanks.

So after the 2nd hour my girlfriend started to bitch...I hit pause. And then it was time to sleep, I hit pause again. Took me in total 2 days, and 8 hours of playing time before I won. 9000 heads taken and I lost 1300. At one time I had to witdhraw my heir and let my reinformcements slug it out. Probably one of the most exhilarating battles I'd ever fought..and the shimazus never made it back. This has gotta show that with technology, mobs are no longer effective. And thank god it wasn't raining when it took place.

What was the longest battle that you ever fought?

[Kiwi]

With a moniker like that I doubt if anyone would ever think you were a masochist

Sorry I use the timer - I like to sleep occasionally (yes I am a wimp).

Did you have any problems with replacements? I am so worried about not getting them that I am only fighting with the units that I have originally - exhausted or not.

[kagemushashingen]

haha Kiwi. If I use a timer, I'd probably lose all my battles..esepcially river battles. I love to lure those suckers to the riverbank and shoot them down with the muskets.

Reinformcements was quite a pain in the begininng. But after thinkin about that I decided that it's closer to reality and history (yes i am a sucker for detail, even if ignorance is bliss). Never have problems with reinformcements - because I usually have good troops on standby..and I rarely use them unless necessary. On river battles reinformcents can be a major pain..so I always make sure my 1st wave can last the entire duration of the battle...

I think commanding a strategic terrain is key. once you take out the 1st wave, when enemy reinformcements come, you'll have to play defensive...even if you are the attacker of the province!!!

[solypsist]

to speed things up (I sometimes also turn the timer off) you can use the speed setting button at the bottom of the map. this helps to get past the slow spots in between waves/reinforcements so you can cut down on teh waiting. i use it extensively and manage to get throuhg big battles in fifteen minutes. check it out.

[kagemushashingen]

yep - i used the speed button...even then those suckers take a long time to regroup after the reinformcents..and I was not gonna move (as i'd exhaust my troops)...still took
me a very long time to fight them off..i think the worst thing is when they send archers + cavalry archers after mah ass and I am forced to send my cavalry after 'em.......

solyp - what was the max number of enemy troops you 'd to face..without auto-resolve?

[BSM_Skkzarg]

I gotta ask a couple of questions. First - were you using the original shogun, or the expansion? Sounds like the original as you did not seem to have enemy units appearing in your rear areas.

Also - what level were you playing on? With only 2k men - even using mostly muskets - they would run out of ammo way before you got the enemy down low enough to make em all run. Either way tho - an excellent battle!

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BSM_Skkzarg
"A mind is a terrible thing to taste."

[kagemushashingen]

Hey man. I gotta be in a different time zone...seems like all the posts happen when I am sleepin'..!!

I am/was playing shogun MI. Reinforcements happen in all directions. In this particular battle, i was crammed up on a flat plateau and a couple of knolls so there wasn't any space behind me for the enemy reinformcements to appear.. But they did appear on my flanks and I nearly fell out of my seat when they accidentally clashed with my troops...

My musketeers ran outta ammo after the 4th enemy wave..but at that time I'd already lost close to 800 men. If I did not take out the enemy taisho in the beginning, I don't think my 30+ battalion of warrior monks could 'scare' 120 enemy nonodaichis down the plains..

By the time my archer reinformcenets came, they were hacked down by the cavalry...so it was hand to hand combat all the way...luckily they 'gave' up on me after a couple of skirmiches.. they simply ran outta the map after that.

[kagemushashingen]

expert level....but everything seems so much easier with this expansion pack. Sometimes I relaly had to wait for the computer to build up enough so that I can get a high from fighting them.

[jomni]

gosh you left your computer on for two days!!! That's a waste of electicity. Good thing your monitor did not overheat.

[Zone]

I didn't realise the timer could be switched off! How? Although the only time it's run out for me it was to my advantage, it was very foggy and I had an archer unit and a samuri unit against about 3 archers and 2 samuri. They never managed to find me!

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Fight first, ask questions later.

[solypsist]

you can turn the timer off two ways:
1. in campaigns, use the Options to click on/off the timer for campaign mode.
2. on Multiplayer and Custom battles, the timer option is near the Seasons/Difficulty setting on the Choose A Province screen.

[jomni]

I don't usually turn off the timer. I don't like hide and seek games so the timer forces people to attack quickly.

[Moriboy]

You guys have to watch that radar screen when following Soly's advice. I've used the "speed up" mode a bunch of times to hasten the inevitable, and on a few occasions have been suprised by high speed enemy reinforcements crashing into the rear of one or more of my units. Watch that screen dudes!

[Whitey]

longest battle I've ever had lasted only 5 hours of constant play, only happened on Sunday, I attacked the Mongols last province, incidentally a river province (my own damn fault)...Mongols 4200, Japs 9100

I pushed the Mongols over the river killing more of them than me, they made their last stand on a hill - I decided Lord Hojo should lead the final assault (honour and all that) and so I marched fowards, somehow my left flank broke and fled, leaving Hojo isolated (yes, he was killed) and so the Mongols pushed me back over the river with around 600 casualties including my Daimyo, My reinforcements came up (YS with SA) and I inflicted pain on the Mongols before again being broken, this time loosing around 700 men...The next wave was YA and was suitably crushed by the Mongols, the next wave, which included crossbows wreaked havoc with the MHC who were forced to withdraw (due to the fact they were reduced to under 10 a unit) but their reinforcements came up and when the Crossbow ammunition ran out I had to pull back from the river again...the Mongols came streaming back over...The next wave was more YA, YS, SA, and AX, this force did some damage, but not enough, the Mongols charged it and threw it back in confusion, killing well over half. Now came the wave I had been waiting for...about 10 YC and HC and 5 CA...time to out-mongol the tired mongol troops, a full charge at their center preceeded by flanking CA fire broke the invaders and sent them flying over the river, they actually rallied with reinforcements when over their and a repeat performance was too much for my battered Cavalry corps who were soundly defeated and I was 'again' sent back over the river...The last wave as I remember it included some elite Naginata and Totomi Archers that I had completely forgotten about, these men, for the honour of their fallen lord and legendary weapons and armour glittering in the evening sun marched fearlessly at the Mongol troops in two great lines, taking the fire and throwing back repeated Mongol charges. As the sun went down* 3,000 Japanese lay dead on the field along with 1,500 Mongols, it had been a bloody victory, but the Mongol Invasion was destroyed

*dramatisation, may not have happened


sorry, got carried away

[Zone]

New competition:

Who can write the most dramatised battle

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Fight first, ask questions later.

[barocca]

I'll take that challenge

First of all I have replaced the original music with Bagpipes,
for instructions on how to exchange for any music you desire in STW go here, http://www.geocities.com/totalwarshogun/
it's under strategies / general / battle sounds and music,
(should be somewhat similar for MI)

Now (from my own website) an ancient account of a battle fought over a year ago against a horde of warrior monks.


monks in the mist...


We marched boldy onto the field before dawn, to await the arrival of the Ikko-Ikko.

As the sun slowly rose above the horizon I watched in despair as the mist rolled in and the land took on an etheral qualty.
We waited, but the mist did not rise.

Then the lone piper I had placed on the far side of the valley signalled the arrival of the enemy with the plaintive skirl of Amazing Grace.

Slowly we advanced to a small ridge about a third of the way across the plain of Totomi.
Here we waited.
Here we would make our stand.

Time passed and my brave warriors rested.
Eventually, worried about my limited visibility, and knowing the Ikko-Ikko would be trying to locate and flank me, i sent my right flank YS towards the edge of the plain.

A runner came hurtling back through the mist a short time later, they had not found the enemy.
I ordered them to take up a position well forward of my right flank and spread out to await the enemy.

With little other option, i sent my left flank YS forward.
I ordered my 3 Naganita to spread out to cover the removal of my flankers.

Meanwhile, we musketeers tried hard to keep our matches lit and ready.

Minutes passed, as my YS crept forward, peering intently through the mist.
Eventually i sent a runner to order them to halt and await developments.
He returned swiftly and informed me the commander of the YS had located the Ikko-Ikko Taisho and was shadowing him,
my YS had not been spotted.

I ordered my musketeers to readiness and we listened intently for any sound through the mist,
I sent runners to the YS units with orders that as soon as they heard us engage the enemy they were to both charge the Taisho.

They must have got nervous because they both crept as close as they could and then engaged the Taisho before we had seen the Ikko-Ikko main body.

I heard the noise of battle ahead in the mist,
and fearing my YS had been suprised i was about to order a general advance when the Ikko-Ikko appeared from the mist directly ahead.
All my musketeers opened fire as one and the first wave reeled from the volume of shot.

The second wave came screaming through the mist and smashed into the Naganita who were desperately trying to close ranks.
My brave musketeers held their ground and picked off tagets of opportunity as the Naganita were overwhelmed.

Fierce hand to hand broke out between the advancing Ikko-Ikko and my first line of musketeers.

The second line of formations continued to fire as the first line withdrew through them. The first rank however rallied immediately and resumed firing into the sorely depleted ranks of the Ikko-Ikko.

A runner appeared out of the mist beside me and warned the YS were sorely pressed and requested permission to withdraw.
I estimated the number of Ikko-Ikko dead before me and knowing they had minimal leadership from their Taisho ordered a general charge of the few remaining Naganita and the current first rank of Musketeers.

Moments later i decided to gamble with my own life and charged my bodyguard through my firing musketeers and then urged all my surviving warriors forward with me.

The Ikko-Ikko, unsure of the exact situation chose to fall back upon their Taisho.
As the Taisho saw his troops streaming back through the mist he decided discretion was the better part of valour, but as he turned to flee a Samurai ran him through with his Yari.

The Ikko-Ikko crumbled completely and the day was ours.

Barocca


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DoragonBarocca of Clan Doragon

[This message has been edited by barocca (edited 10-03-2001).]

[Zone]

I know I can't top that, though mostly cause I can't be bothered to write that much.

I liked the bit about trying to keep the matches lit

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Fight first, ask questions later.

[Tenchimuyo]

Good writing!

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A great warrior rarely reveal his true skills....