My personal army-setup

[Kocmoc]

As I got asked to make such a tread, here we go.
This is a very personal view, it may differ from other peoples view or liking.
If I speak about numbers, I look at it with small unit-sizes.

Base Idea

Imo spear clan is strongest right now, especially with monks counting as spears. This give me the possibility to get bansai and/or inspire on my monks. It also give me the cheapest "inspire bot" in game - the ashi spear, with 4 base upgrades and inspire it costs me 569 Koku!

Another base thought is, that I can go with a full spear army and dont use any cav in team games, my ally can bring extra cav and I save me retainer or I play with guys who are in a cav-clan and use strong cavs with bansai and inspire.

I prefer (unless its 22k) a base army made of ashis, loan swords are extreme strong and cheap, same as ashi spears.
This I combinate with expensive shock units who do the spike job. My monk guns are good enough to rout a whole army on its own.
Monk guns are the strongest unit in game, at least from the killing-speed. With inspire and rapid shot the monk gun gets up to 170 reload skill and pump out 8-10 shots in the time a unit has to run the 150 range till it reach the gun, with some stopping from my cheap ashis.

In most games, my guns kill 100-130 each, sometimes even more ( there are friendly kills though).


I also use at least 1 good monk, my melee shock unit, it got inspire and can pump itself up to 25/27 Attack.
You can do tests yourself, this unit really eats other units, the killing speed with 27 attack is out of hands, it needs seconds to rout other units, unless its a very good veteran.

As example, this unit kills a normal monk in around 12-16 secs and lose about 4-8 mens out of the 40.



To not get too low on numbers, I bring my loans and ashi spears to get some mass, my Monk guns, monk bows (in 14k) and the monk melee are my shock units. Im weak with cav, since I bring low numbers in cav.
This means, that I have to keep my army clustered and has to counter enemy cav. I push with a combination of my monk guns and cheap bows. If you want, the cheap ashi bows are the cannonfodder.

It all depends on the enemy setup ofcourse, if there is a way to shotout with our bows, than I do that.



In our 2v2´s, Magy bring strong cav and at least 1 monk bow, he is the shotout and skirmish guy, to press people with his cav a bit and win a shotout with bows, if needed. Im the puncher, Im the guy who work for the right situation and than press like hell.

Imagine my 2 monkguns coming for you with 150 range, 170 reload and 120 accuracy. You either has strong guns yourself, some hardcore bows who can stop it or your toast. To rush it with melee is a bad idea, to send cav in first to make me move guns back and than get melee quick behind is a possible way.



at 10k I use mostly this setup:

2 Yari cav
2 ashi spears (one is 569 with inspire)
3 loan swoards (5 lvl upgraded)
2-3 cheap ashi archer
2 monk guns (1035 each)
1 Monk (depends on the other units, but if possible my inspire monk for 1159)


This is a 2v2 Setup, Magy use at least 1 monk bow and strong cav, else I would use a monk bow (200 range) myself.



Bows:

Unless you are in a bow-clan, you run around with 150 range bows - Ashi and samurai.
You can upgrade monk bows from 175 to 200 - without bow clan and thats a huge imbalance imo.

Samurai bows are pointless, forget about this unit! Either you use upgrades ashi bows or go for the expensive monk bows.
In 14k I use a combination of it, 2-3 cheap ashi bows (cannonfodder) and mostly 1 expensive monk bow.


swords

Loan swords are great, upgraded they really kick ass, you just have to watch the moral, these units has to be in range of your general, same as ashi spears
Katana are good, with some upgrades they really hurt
ND I dont like them, pretty low armor, very expensive. With upgrades katana do better!


cav

Light cav as cav-clan can be strong, if upgraded correctly this unit can be surprisely good - you can put bansai and inspire up on it
Yari cav - most used cav
Great guard - best cav on the field. Magy use a GG with inspire, it beats 3-4 yari cav on its own.


Spears

Ashi - with some upgrades the stats are pretty good and with the discount retainer it is a very cheap unit
yari sams, I hardly use it, the "speed" abiltiy is crap, else this unit has okay stats.
Naginata, I dont like that unit, if you have to relay on high armor, you lost already (even so many people faced them in rushes)
Monk - high end mega super duper monser killer, extreme strong unit, weak armour, but 15 moral and a real killer, especially as it counts as spear and rip of any cav.


Matchlocks

As with bows, either you go with ashi guns or with monks, there is no point into getting samurai guns.
Monk guns are extreme strong, especially as it gets to 150 range.