Hi everyone. Short time reader, first time poster.

After overcoming the usual Starforce (may it burn in a nasty place) errors, I managed to get Shogun: Total War running again yesterday.

I've beaten the campaign (several times?) some years ago, but only by letting the computer autofight my battles. Now I want to see what this game is really about, so I've decided to learn how to lead my armies into war.

I'm utter crap at commanding my army on the battlefield, so I hope to get better by training in the tutorial battles.

Having pored through every guide I could find on the subject, I believe I know the strengths and weaknesses of each of the unit types, but alas! I seem to be unable to beat even the third Shogun tutorial ("First Encounter"), in which you control 30 archers defending a hill against 34 spearmen.

I remember giving those spearmen a severe thrashing, but only once, and I have no idea what I did right...

I've attempted to retreat further up the hill, then spreading out in a line formation before letting my arrows rain down on the spearmen below, but the spearmen barely lose a single soldier before they're upon me, kicking my behind in a bad way.

Could one of the mighty warlords frequenting this forum please enlighten this junior (in experience rather than years) officer: How do I (consistently) beat the spearmen in the third tutorial (called "First Encounter") of Shogun: Total War.

/Stefan