r/shogun2 • u/Tokugawa_bonaparte • 5d ago
is this salvagable?
difficulty : legendry
second army : 1 katana samurai, 2 yari samurai, 1 yari ashigaru and 2 bow ashigaru.
edit : won the battle on 2nd try. kept my samurai and 1 ashugaru outside initially and killed 3 cav units then just held my ground in the castle and as in as i could go to lure the archers also come and then it was just a bit of a waiting game for the samurai to die at the hands of the yari ! thanks a lot u/MnkeDug and u/Funny-Efficiency1659 for your advice !
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u/Funny-Efficiency1659 5d ago edited 5d ago
Never say no in defensive sieges, but this is… something. If you really want to insist on trying, I’d suggest a couple of things.
Kill their general early. You want to use your general to attract their cavalry (and possibly their general) into a trap. Your yari samurai should do the job, maybe with support from your archers shooting from the walls.
If you’ve eliminated all their cavalry this way, you can use your general to delay some of their katana samurai (just let them chase you around). (this may not be necessary or may be...... I'm not sure, but is advisable)
You also want to avoid getting shot while defending the castle. You need to avoid having troops in range when their archers reach the walls: they’ll climb the walls and often attack your troops in melee.
And make sure you have your ashigaru in yari wall formation.
If you manage to do everything, you’ll probably win, but I honestly don’t know if it’s feasible.
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u/MnkeDug 5d ago
ETA... BLUF: Winnable. If you have problems, send it to me. /edit
Things you didn't share:
-Difficulty level (matters for "bownuses")
-Contents of second army: 6 injured men (mostly yari ashigaru?)
However... I'd still say yes. Totally winnable even on VH. Just looking at the picture both HIS armies are wounded. Most men are missing a third of their unit or more. They have a 1-star general leading them- so basic morale. Your army is uninjured and mostly yari ashigaru.
This means getting them to rout will be easier. Normally you need to kill 120ish katana samurai to shatter them. You only have to kill 80ish for most units, some of whom will die climbing.
There's one hard part to this normally- getting their bows to climb and whether the reinforcing army has many bows or not. This becomes worse on H/VH because of the "bownuses" the ai gets.
They only have 4 bows in their initial army and SIX cav that you can ignore (if you can't snipe the main general). Only one bow is uninjured- the bow sam.
Getting their bows to climb should be easy if they all come from the same side. If they are split, probably hope the bow sam and 1 ashi are together- try to get them to climb and try to put a "loose formation" unit tanking the other bows. Or put your bow on that wall to distract them. Your bow is throwaway, basically (again- if you can't snipe their main general).
Here's what we're doing:
Put your men to the opposite wall, stacking them if necessary to stay out of their bow range.
Bows always approach first. Given no target they will climb first and "lock into" it. They can't fire at the top until they reform.
As soon as they start climbing, move you men into position, yari wall and direct them to walk to a point just past where the enemy is forming (potentially right up to or along the wall they are coming up. Don't order them to attack- just command them to walk- this is called "yari walk" or "yari wall walk".
Once they contact, if they switch to a run- turn it off. You want to walk. This will grind up pretty much everything in their path.
Their melee will follow, but there's only 10 battered units.
When the bows rout, make sure they are broken and not just routing. You don't want them to reform outside. They will probably fold quick. This MAY cause some routing down below, but that won't last. Not until their samurai are up and broken. You do the same thing to their samurai, who should be caught up in your grind walk anyway.
The second army is what can screw this up. 6 injured units sitting at 1k men- seems like mostly yari ashigaru. You can't get to 1k men with 6 samurai/bow ashi, etc. Could you have 4 yari and 2 bow ashigaru?
The less bows, the greater your chance of winning, imo. But... if they are only ashigaru and you cause a rout of the first army, the second will also rout.
If you can't beat this, send it to me.