Guide of Bait Tactics

[Maltz]

Three. A Long, Tree-less Line


"My lord, the enemy is here! And they indeed defend on their hill."
"Good, just as The Art of Gore predicted!"
"I thought taking high ground is common sense... Where should we deploy?"
"Hm... if I were to actively attack Shimazu, I would deploy on the closer, smaller hill A. But for Bait Tactics... let me see if there is a quote..."

4. The distance between the enemy and you should be at least two times the range of bows. The longer the better.

"Hm, so hill A is a little too close. How about our current position, hill B?? Pretty far away... I can hardly see Shimazu from here. "
"Yeah we are VERY far away from Shimazu. Let's see..."

5. Between the enemy and you, find a tree-less line for the prey to travel through.

"A tree-less line? Hm... the trees growing in front of us are pretty dense."
"It looks like that we will have to walk down the hill, stay in the open, at C."
"Wouldn't the soldiers get tired from heat exhaustion?"
"Luckily this is spring time... On my order, move!"



"STOP! We fight Shimazu here!"
"Let's do some serious Bait Tactics today!"
"Faithful warriors! Can you see little shrubs on the hill far away? Those are Shimazu soldiers! Today, we cut them down like shrubs! "




Note: Being on the low ground is a minor negative factor, as the prey will close in slightly faster.

[Maltz]

Four. Keep Ranged Power Ratio (you/enemy) < 2

"My lord, in response to our move to the open, Shimazu rotated their army to face us. But they did not move."
"Shimazu is hoping us to attack them on the hill. They can wait all day, as the sun seems still in the sky. "
"I heard that sometimes the enemy actively attacks us even if they are the defender. It does not happen here."
"Really. Oh, here is a related quote:"

6. The enemy actively attacks you if your ranged power is more than twice as powerful as theirs. Do not carry too many ranged units to the battlefield if you want to use Bait Tactics.

"We have 9 ranged units. Shimazu has 5, but some of them are samurai. Obviously, our ranged power is less than twice as powerful as theirs. Is that why they did not come to us?"
"At least Mao-tsu wrote so. Somehow I am compelled to say he is correct. There is another quote:"

7. If your ranged power is less than twice as strong as the enemy's, bait and destroy ranged units until the ratio goes up to almost 2. This makes subsequent baiting easier.

"Since Shimazu has bow samurai, maybe we can get away with killing off one of their bow ashigaru units."
"Worth a try... OK."
"OK."
"OK."
"OK... er.. but how?"


Note: The exact composition of the ranged units of two armies can be found in a screenshot above. To save you the trouble here it is.

[Maltz]

Five. Bow Draws Bow

"Maybe The Art of Gore has an answer?"
"Oh how nice! There is a section exactly labelled How to Draw out Ranged Units. Let's see..."

8. How to Draw Out Ranged Units: First, make sure their ranged units are on the first row. This almost always happen to be the case.

"Can you see Shimazu's army? We are a little... far away."
"OK, I will get closer to take a look."



"My lord, Shimazu's formation... it is hard to describe in brief words. There are three rows in total. Indeed, their bows are at the front row. But right in the middle there is a katana unit. After that there is a second row made of spears. Then in the third row comes the bulk of katana units. Shimazu Yoshihisa is in the middle of the third row."
"Hm... I do not recognize this formation. But fortunately there is an Appendix about formations at the end of the book! Let's see... OH here it is!"
"Misplaced Katana? Not a very cool name for a formation, but catches the essence of it."
"So I guess that's a gree light to proceed with baiting..."

9. How to Draw Out Ranged Units: Second, march the bait forward. The best bait for enemy's ranged infantry on the first row is your own ranged infantry. They come to you when you get close to their range, or when your unit's range almost touches the target prey.

"OK, let's do just that. Bow Ashigaru unit #1, march!"
"It is quite a long walk..."
"Yeah. Let's take a 5-minute break."

Note: If the AI does not have Katana, there is simply no Katana in the middle of the first line. So the formation can be simply called "Bow on the First Line", which is AI's default defensive formation.

[Maltz]

Six. Keep the Right Distance

"Finally our bait is there! And... look! There are three units of Shimazu Bow marching at it!"
"It worked! Let's draw them back and destroy!"
"Turn back and run! Don't let them shoot at you!"

(10 seconds later)

"What the... the preys went back to their formation... come back to daddy! "
"Hm... maybe The Art of Gore has something to say?"
"Ops, there is a section called Keep the Right Distance. Should have checked the guide first..."

10. Keep the Right Distance: In order to keep a ranged-unit prey follow your bait, a suitable distance must be kept between them. The ideal distance is slightly longer than prey's range. If the distance is too long, the bait is off the hook. If the distance is too short, the bait is shot. If you use a ranged infantry to bait another ranged infantry and the terrain is relatively flat, simply let your bait walk back. The ideal distance will be maintained just about right. But if you see the prey starts running, your bait should run, too.

Important: Do not lead the prey into any tiny patch of tree as they will be off the hook.

"Wow that's a monster paragraph for classic Chinese. So what we just did was to let the prey getting too far behind."
"Good, so our bait will comfortably walk back with the prey."

[Maltz]

"Yeah! Come back to daddy!"
"My lord, I have a question..."
"Yes?"
"Didn't we agree that we should only draw out one unit of Bow Ashigaru? If we defeat all three, wouldn't Shimazu Yoshihisa actively attack us with everything he has left?"
"What should we do?..."
"Maybe the book has something?"
"Yes! Right on the next line!"

11. Keep the Right Distance: If too many ranged-unit preys are on hook and defeating them all would cause the enemy to actively attack, make your bait run a little bit until you shake off the extra preys.

"Start jogging until I say walk!"
"One prey turned back!"
"Keep jogging!"
"Two preys turned back!"
"Walk now! Nice! Now let's take another 5-minute break... "

[Maltz]

Seven. Traps for Ranged Prey


"Good, the Shimazu Bow Ashigaru has followed our bait all the way back. Now what do we do?"
"Let's see what The Art of Gore says:"

12. Trap for Ranged Prey: There are two kinds of traps for a ranged unit. The safer trap is to duel them out with all of your own ranged units in loose formation. Once the prey is about to shoot at us, run up closer so the prey is covered by all units' range.
Another way is to back charge them with more than one unit of cavalry - only safe when the enemy's morale is low.

"Hm... charge with cavalry, that would be my unit and my lord's..."
"Why risk our lives? Let's play safe this time. Bow Ashigaru in loose formation! Go!"



"They are shooting at us! We are taking casualties!"
"Draw arrows... Fire!"

[Maltz]

"The prey is outmatched! They drop like swatted mosquitos!"
"Haha, run, run! Run from daddy! Hm... why don't we kill them off with cavalry?"

13. Trap for Ranged Prey: Why let the routing units exit safely? Prepare your cavalry to run them down.

"My lord, please let me do this!"
"Go go go!"



"You want a fight, little Shimazu Bow Ashigaru? Let's see who draws weapon faster!"



"Let me send you to the paradise in the west!"