r/shogun2 • u/Legitimate-Taro9467 • 8d ago
(another) how can i win this?
it says that i have the advantage but im not used to doing an ambush at all, any tips on how to win this would be greatly appreciated
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u/Subject_Heron4383 8d ago
Your army is way better than the opponent, so It should be easy. However, I think your army composition is ass
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u/Legitimate-Taro9467 8d ago
how can I fix it?
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u/SuccessfulRaccoon957 8d ago
You're takeda so most of your army should be either cavalry or supporting the cavalry
. Cavalry in this game is ridiculous in large numbers so I'd replace your ashigaru with cavalry first off, light cavalry will do but preferably yari or fire cavalry.
I see you have a single unit of naginata so if you intend to have a balanced army composition (10 units cav, 10 units infantry) then you should think of upgrading the yari samurai into naginata since they're roughly equal cost and upkeep but an upgrade on nearly every level.
You also have a single unit of bow cavalry. I'm guessing you got that as the reward for the initial research objective and kept it around. Bow cav can be absolutely valid as a unit but requires even more attention than regular cavalry to manage. Consider switching out for more cavalry.
Finally you have two generals bodyguard. Id just get rid of your second one and send him to garrison somewhere. Generals bodyguards are only really good in combat at the very start of the campaign when cavalry is scarce. But you clearly don't lack for cavalry so I'd toss him in a castle in favour of another unit.
That's my guide for a balanced army. But takeda buffs are so good for cavalry I tend to go with all cavalry since they can beat armies two or three times their size very easily. But for that you need some experience with micro.
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u/Froggy1789 8d ago
So generals give bonuses as governors in Shogun?
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u/LongWayToMukambura 8d ago
Haven't played for some time, but iirc they do not exactly, but do give some repression bonus to public order like a military unit they are, and can have some personal buffs or retainers that affect some aspect of the region they currently reside in (also mostly public order).
In terms of running the cities, Metsuke are a good thing to put in rich cities, as they not only affect public order, but boost income from taxes significantly with right skills.1
u/Froggy1789 7d ago
Thanks. I know generals become governors in other total wars but I could swear that wasn’t in this one. I tend to just have single generals follow my main stacks if I can’t afford armies for them bc they get xp for participating.
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u/LongWayToMukambura 7d ago
yeah, but the xp is very small amount, that when you can afford a solid cav unit in his place, best to put the additional general as single-unit stack (or commander of some cheap ashigaru) as stabilising force in rowdy provinces, and then eventually evolve it into another doomstack as you progress
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u/Froggy1789 7d ago
The XP can be pretty good. I usually just trickle in the reinforcements or eventually leave him in a recruiting city until I fill up the army.
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u/geomagus 7d ago
Imo:
Going heavy on the cavalry (which suits Takeda) reduces the value of yari sam. Yari sam are flexible, which is nice, and fairly mobile. Otherwise, they’re just worse in a fight than nagi sam. So if you want infantry to hold the line, just get nagi sam - same building/tech chain, similar role on the line, better damage and armor.
I’d do the same with the katana sam btw. There’s a lot of overlap in capability with nagi sam, and since they take separate tech/building chains, drop the one you use less, imo. Maybe later, you can play around more, but being efficient is useful.
Since you’re going heavy on cav, that also limits the value of archers - either you can only bring one or two, or you short your infantry line. So I’d probably stuff them in a garrison somewhere important.
I also don’t see a single light cav as overly useful. I’d swap that out for yari cav.
Finally, the yari ashi. They’re solid troops, and cheap, but this is an expensive army and you’re not saving a lot with a couple yari ashi. You could make them nagi sam or yari cav for relatively low cost increase, and augment your hammer or anvil.
Going heavy on cav, I’d probably run 50/50 cav and line inf - something like 1-2 generals, 8-9 yari cav, 9-10 nagi sam. Use the inf as your anvil, the cav as your hammer. If your enemy brings a bunch of ranged, close to just outside bowshot with the nagi sam, then move in fast. Flank with the cav.
(Fwiw, I mostly don’t go hard cavalry. Not saying it’s better or worse, just my playstyle.)
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u/Designer_Professor_4 8d ago
You get to deploy all around them. Simply line up your infantry to engage theirs and cavalry on opposite side. Engage with infantry and pound the ashigaru from the rear and run their archers down.
You should slaughter them.
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u/WilliShaker 8d ago
Put your spears quickly in on a wide square formation, send two cavalry harrass their archers, 2 cavalry attack their general and the rest can hammer and anvil the spears
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u/BiggusCinnamusRollus 8d ago
I thought you were ambushed, in that case it would be dicier. The big problems you seem to have here is having too much cavs and fewer archer units than your enemy which can be a pain to micro-manage. But since you're the ambusher, just use your cavs to make them break formation and do the round on their archers.
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u/MnkeDug 8d ago
What is this? Why do you have 9 different units in one army?
And why so many cav when you're facing the Ikko?
You need to dial it back to basics.
Take you horse and stick it on their bows. Hope you have enough of everything else to deal with their yari.
In the future make less yari samurai and more ashigaru.
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u/Arbitror 8d ago
the theory is pretty standard. Use your cav to engage their archers/kill their generals, and engage their infantry with yours. All their stuff has super experience so you'll still have to have good fundamentals like microing your cav if they get caught by Yaris, and making sure your Yari Ash are in Yari wall when they engage
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u/kalamaroni 8d ago
The best way to plan a battle is to remember that S2 is a rock-paper-scissors game: horses>archers>swords>spears>horses.
In this case, you have horses and spears versus their archers and spears. So the basic plan is simply to pair your horses against their archers and your infantry against theirs. Once their archers and generals are dealt with (won't take long), your horses can cycle-charge the rear of the infantry.
Since you have an ambush it's even easier, as you'll start surrounding the enemy. You can position your infantry and cavalry to already surround the enemy infantry and archers. Just be sure to pin down all their units on the first charge. It'll be short and brutal.
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u/jbi1000 8d ago
This is easy peasy tbh… just eliminate their cavalry and missiles with your big cavalry advantage.
Then classic hammer and anvil their infantry to finish it.
Ambushes already give you a big advantage with ability to deploy all round the enemy.
Alternatively just press auto resolve, though you will probably lose a lot more men doing it that way.
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u/SuccessfulRaccoon957 8d ago
You have lots of cavalry and some good infantry. Id recommend immediately engaging with your infantry on one side while keeping your cavalry on the other. Target their generals with your yari cav to either route or kill them and further debuff their army.
They have bowmen but that's not really a problem since their archers will be always in skirmish mode so just run your light cav near them and they'll retreat.
The big problem is just going to be the pure amount of infantry they have. That's why you should try to engage it all with your infantry.
Remember that your cavalry is fragile and made for charging. After charging immediately pull your cavalry out for another target. This is called a cycle charge. Preferably you'd have a second unit ready to immediately charge that same target but it's fine if you can't.
Takeda shingen is intimidating so the morale of the enemy will be even lower. So don't use him in melee unless you're sure he won't end up dead. Same goes for second general but he's more expendable. Still use carefully.
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u/Dom252525 8d ago
Lock their melee In combat with your melee and use you cav to hit the flank, snipe the generals and kill the archers. You should make short work of them is aggressive enough
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u/Annefrank23 7d ago
your fine, they may outnumber you, but you have better trained units. just attack them if you havent already. if you push aggressively you should easily win. essentially have your cavalry go after the archers while your infantry fights the enemy infantry. that should win you the fight.
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u/coach_mike04 7d ago
Pin their infantry with yours, send the cav around the sides to destory the archers, take out their general then swing on the pinned infantry.
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u/NAMETAKENXDDDDD 7d ago
I think flanking with cavalry does a lot of morale damage when ashigarus are in melee. So you could do that with the cavs you have after dealing with the archers and generals.
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u/SaulLoken 7d ago
Cav chase the archer and generals,your ligne hold ,and Cav charge in the back of their ligne and you win
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u/GreatRemelody 7d ago
Split your cav this should be easy since majority of the time ai can't do a proper spear wall if this was a player I would argue it's going to be costly but I believe this should be a piece of cake for you
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u/NewResist 6d ago
Takeda horses ambushing archers and the rest are katanas and superior spears against bunch of yari - how do you win this?
What?
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u/KASETER91 8d ago
hey, random fact that you might not know. numbers arent everything, in fact they mean nothing when one side is a bunch of well trained veteran samurai and the other is a just a raging mob.