Holding a river....

[BSM_Skkzarg]

Man - I am LOVING the patch - the reinforcements are fixed with some sense!

I have found the way to hold a bridge without a problem against a huge horde...

6 muskets - 3 archers - and the balance as reserves.

Set 4 of your muskets up in a 20x3 line facing the bridge - back to where they can fire at units crossing - but the archers on the far side can't hit them. Behind them string your archers - in a 30x2 formation.
They can now hit the bridge crossers as well.

Take the last two muskets - in 20x3 formation - and "cap" the ends of the "box" with them. Set all your men to hold position - archers to fire at will - muskets grouped and holding fire - allowing you to maximize the fire of your muskets. A couple of salvo's as the units mass on the bridge footing (the AI always mills around a bit there) - and even extreme honor no-dachi and monks run away. The archers really help with the monks and no-dachi - and against yari cav and cav archers. They don't help as much against the more armored units - but its enough when u need it.

This formation - with judicial use of archer fire - can hold 3-5 fresh waves - meaning you can decimate 50+ units - not counting your own reinforcements. A few attempts by the AI to take the province - and your troops honor will soar - meaning better accuracy, rate of fire and more shots.
Qapla!

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

[PugPenguin]

Hehe. I think we all enjoyed doing that at some point in our shogunhood. Back in original STW I once had 2 musket units and 3 WM units to defend a river province, and pulled off 1100 kills with 1 musket unit and another about 900. Some managed to charge up to guns but WM repelled them. In the end I had close to 3000 kills... I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the result. It was so amusing, heh. Hurrah to stray bullets.

[solypsist]

I'm sure this tactic eventually makes it into everyone's playbook. It's a great one.

[BSM_Skkzarg]

Pug - how can you get that many kills with limited ammo?

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

[Lord Shimazu]

He may disable it.

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Im a monkey 'till the end!

[PugPenguin]

1k kills? You can do that without unlimited ammo given time and guts of enemy. I strongly believe the key lies in stray fires. I bet the direct-aimed kills are only like 10% of the whole kills.

Another thing is that # of people per unit might effect it. I can't remember very well but I think I had used 120 per unit. Or does ammo change accordingly? I don't know. Either way you can pull off 1k kills given the condition & circumstance. 500 to 600 kills is easily possible in bridge province - we all know that, yes? And you'll find that battle ended there just because enemy routed. Not because you ran out of ammo.

Whether it was muskets or arques, I can't remember. I think it was muskets.

[Gothmog]

I believe it's possible. Though the condition must be close to ideal: height advantage; high honor; perfect LOS; shooting from point blank; low AC of AI units; 120 men/unit setting; timer off...

I once had a castle assault when one unit of my muskets (60 men) collected 375 heads. And if I remember correctly, the AI ran out of their sitting ducks (oops, I mean calvary) before my muskets ran out of ammo.




[This message has been edited by Gothmog (edited 10-09-2001).]