Observations of playing at Huge units.

[HunkinElvis]

One thing I noticed is that when you have 3 opponents with huge units you have very little room to get behind them. That's unless you play at a large map.

[Wilbo]

I was wondering whether you could use the Spartan idea to completely nail the one flank of an army while simply holding the rest back. I guess if you use units of spearmen on hold formation to just plain stop most of the army and then hit them with as much as you can on one flank (hopefully outnumber that flank 3 to 1 or something), it should crumble with enough time for you to get some units behind their army.

[gatoshin]

Interesting. I'd always played with 120-man units, assuming that the smaller unit sizes existed to ease up the hardware requirements. Hadn't thought about the tactical and strategic implications until now. But I suppose bridge crossings are easier, units easier to maneuver and position, and the daimyo's heavy cav contingent more valuable with the 60-man default setting.

[HunkinElvis]

I was wondering whether you could use the Spartan idea to completely nail the one flank of an army while simply holding the rest back. I guess if you use units of spearmen on hold formation to just plain stop most of the army and then hit them with as much as you can on one flank (hopefully outnumber that flank 3 to 1 or something), it should crumble with enough time for you to get some units behind their army.

I'll try that. I noticed that yari and ashi units last longer when I put them in a hold position. That's useful for keeping the enemy units busy while I flank them.
What I usually did was wait for the enemy to attack while I shot the enemy down.

[gatoshin]

I'd been playing huge units all along, but today I started a Uesugi campaign using 60-man units.

Wow, what a difference. When I play using 120-man units, I always have to scrounge for enough troops to protect my borders and still attack my neighbors. Using smaller units, I have no problem churning out massive armies and my economy seems to be tearing right along due to reduced maintenance costs.

In short, a game which actually challenged me from time to time, became ridiculously easy. The whole eastern half of Japan fell in no time flat. Maybe I'll try an intermediate unit size in order to balance the better strategic gameplay of the 120-man setting against the better tactical battles you can have with 60-man units.

[HicRic]

gatoshin, do you play on Expert? If you want a harder game, try that. Of course if you already play on that then there's no point.


I played a game on 120 unit size last week. The Ronin destroyed three clans and took almost two-thirds of the map! Of course, the clans later re-emerged and eventually took the Ronin lands back..but still. Not something you see every day! I would have rolled over the rebels and taken their land as my own but I decided to turtle to see what would happen.

[gatoshin]

I prefer not to play on Expert because it affects my sense of immersion when every harvest is miserable and every border province gets attacked every turn. Also, the constant battles overwhelm the strategic map and it begins to feel like I'm simply playing a bunch of unrelated scenarios instead of pursuing the title of Shogun.

[Lord Nobunaga]

*bump* Nice topic

I now play on hard with 100 man unit size. I find that challenging enough.