Quote Originally Posted by Simon Appleton
No, they are Yari Samurai. It is not an easy tutorial. I think part of the point of it is to show you that those archers are still Samurai and are pretty decent with their swords. With a few minor advantages - charging downhill, enemy morale lowered by missile losses/tiredness etc - they can take on YS and win. The tutorial also vividly shows you the impact of bad weather on archery.

But I agree with Ludens, I tend to pull the archers back, further up the hill. Then shoot, charge and pray. Hadn't thought about the thin formation but it sounds like a good idea.
Yes, my mistake. I just played the tutorial again and lost. I hadn't noticed that it was supposed to be difficult because the first time I played it I won pretty handily. It seems that luck plays a large factor.