Shogun 2 Advanced Battle Tutorial (Castle Siege)

Not the best fight by any means, but this may help a few newbies. I made an error; the game is only free to claim between 27 April and 01 May. As mentioned in the comments, there is a workaround to enable the siege equipment on this level.
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• SHOGUN 2 TUTORIAL STRE... (campaigns)
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[@TheDanDude17]

I played this and everything went wrong and all my units were in full retreat. Then it suddenly said: "Decisive Victory!"

[@roloduarte3100]

lol.

[@Pundae]

me too. tutorial battle is a victory regardless in the campaign

[@nevoimsel9728]

Thank you very much for this Tutorial. Would never believe I could get stuck in a tutorial level

[@m1k0sh1_6]

Facts. I get the gist, but being completely new to the Total War series, the wreckage that was my first 3 attempts... holy hell. Seeing his positioning alone was worth the watch.

[@Tay-ky3fi]

yeah.. im getting wrecked righ tnow

[@jaskknd]

if you skip the cut scene in the beginning, you can actually control the gunners. found out about that because I had to reply the tutorial, like most people

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

If anyone is watching this now and would like to experience much better results during this battle, try pressing Esc during the intro. The cannons should become usable. Also try using the Bow Hero's fire arrows to burn down the tower next to the front gate if the cannons don't do the job. You might be able to use the matchlocks to block the gate to kill routing troops, or you might want to send them around to climb a wall to outflank and support the infantry or to capture the tower at the tenshu. I should have had the infantry climb the walls rather than stand there taking archer/tower fire forever. Another mechanic to take advantage of would be to bring the archers back to the key building to replenish ammo. Good luck & have fun!

[@lolboyz44]

Genuinely to helpful

[@luxman14]

Thanks, it seems unbelievable but I couldn't get through this damn tutorial, also because of this bug that the cannons don't work, in other videos they are operational. It took me 10 attempts and your help to succeed. Now that you have indicated the way to activate the cannons I'll try again, I'm curious, also because the tutorial assumes that they work. - edit: Better, the cannons knock down a tower and hammer the defenders. I infiltrated the ninjas, they found them but I made it in time to open the doors. Definitely easier.

[@lastyhopper2792]

@@luxman14 how to open the gate with ninja?

[@m1k0sh1_6]

@@lastyhopper2792 have them ascend the walls by the gate and snag the flag. Way easier with archer cover fire + cannons.

[@lastyhopper2792]

@@m1k0sh1_6 Idk why, but I was unable to figuring out that the flag is belonging to da gate. Instead I was telling my ninja to snap to the gate's wall (like what you would with your bow man in defense situation).. I knew that the archer tower and the main keep can be captured by standing on the flag, but never thought that you can open a gate without pulling a lever of some sort xD

[@3rdstsaint716]

Good to know I’m not the only noob who failed at this. Would’ve been easier if the siege equipment worked tho

[@Prophint]

"hey, you know that siege tutorial? Yeah, what if we disabled the siege units?" -A very smart gamedev

[@noewos]

Very helpful! I got stuck on this particular tutorial

[@BLUENOUB]

Owned the game for a few years already but really enjoyed watching this!

[@BLUENOUB]

Tired_David definitely, thanks for the recommendation. Straight forward video with direct explanation. Really enjoyed it!

[@АнтонСорокин-о6д]

this video comes just in time! Thank you so much dude

[@djaccountisbfisbx3880]

Took me six attempts and I barely made it. If I can’t do a simple siege do I have any chance at an actual campaign?

[@Mohamad909]

Thank you for the tutorial for the TUTORIAL!

[@kiui9267]

nice video mate, very concise

[@JayTraversJT]

And there was me thinking I did a bad job lol. The losses are necessary after all. Thank you.

[@heyitsme3123]

I'm a newbie when it come to total war, used to play total warhammer 1 but mostly auto battle. If there's anything, what I learn from this video is you have to use the pause button!

[@jpetras16]

Is there any reason to manually do siege battles instead of autoresolve or waiting them out?

[@Darvlok]

I guess it depends, I also failed this siege on my first try but I don't like sieges anyway. I do like defending, so in most Total War games I just autoresolve or I wait them out.

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

I'm with @Darvlok on this. I usually auto resolve them as the attacker unless I have a really major advantage such as 6+ units of bow warrior monks. Sometimes it's fun, but mostly I prefer defending.

[@turinmormegil7715]

Since we are on the topic I'd liek to ask a question to the veterans on matter of siege defense: *should I put my archers on skirmish mode or let them camping on the walls* ? My fear is that if I don't move them away when melee enemies are climbing - which I usually can't always do cuz of multiple focus that I have to keep track of, thus why I mentioned the skirmish mode, so the AI does it for me instead - they will stand there as free kills for the climbing enemy troops. But on the other hand, if they retreat and switch the position of walls with my melee so these can fight the enemy's melee, they'll lose effectiviness in firing and the protection of the wall against the enemy archers, hence they will still be sitting ducks, but now for the archers. What should I do?

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

I find that putting the archers in skirmish mode makes them back off too early. I would rather pull them off and switch places with a unit of yari ashigaru in yari wall and take my chances with enemy archers rather than enemy melee. If you leave them in place for too long, they'll be annihilated for sure. I try to make the switch when enemies are about halfway up the wall. Make use of the pause button and your camera controls. Also, defenders on the top level of a castle will always fight to the last man. In a tight spot, you can manually switch the archers to melee mode in order to defend themselves or plug a gap.

[@turinmormegil7715]

@@wafflesaurus_supreme First of all, thanks for the answer. Seoncd: that happened yesterady to me, they (archers) backed off too early and missed, let's say, half of the potential kill they could if they waited long before switching. The thing is, I don't like to play with pause. I used to do it a lot back in the day with Rome II cuz I wanted the best shots and enjoy the battle frame by frame, from every angle, but I find it makes battles too easy and predictable, and after a while I got bored of it. So I don't use pause anymore. The problem is that keeping an eye on all the four walls to switch manually every archer at the right moment is virtually impossible, hencee why I tried the skirmish, but as I mentioned it capped my kill potential. The opposite also happened last week, and I lost one archer unit entirely cuz I didn't retreat them to a backmsot position and they weren't on skirmish (I simply forgot to check them again while I was distracted with the other three walls, as I was trying to do everything manually without relying on the skirmish mode). The other problem I have is that when I try to switch the wall with the yari they just stand still and don't go if but one enemy has finished climbing. Instead, I have to manually order them to move past behind him to block the position. That's very annoying

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

@@turinmormegil7715 I'm mostly the same way; I don't like to use pause. I'll use it in special cases such as this, when I feel that I'm overwhelmed and I really want to know what's going on somewhere else. My micro is nothing to brag about. The other issue with skirmish mode is that if your archers are being chased, they'll just continue to run away and they'll take heavier losses. You can take your yari ashigaru and put them right on the wall where the archers were, and that's very effective (especially in spear wall). You can also put them into guard mode, so they won't go outside the gates to chase a routing enemy and in turn instantly route themselves.

[@turinmormegil7715]

@@wafflesaurus_supreme yeah, that also happened yesterday: didn't know what was guard mode and loose formation and my yari were either destroyerd by archer or foolishly tried to go chase the enemy outside. Thanks for the tip man. I really appreciate It.

[@willdenham]

Jesus, thanks for the euro cannon info! That was getting frustrating.

[@CM-ls6fh]

Thank you for the tutorial. I was wondering, how do you make it show how the formation will look before even moving the units? EDIT: NVM It's space?

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

You've got it. Spacebar.

[@damien650]

nice video sir. but iam still don't know how to open castle the gate as ninja ? 😅

[@icemoneyc3181]

This game is 50 dollars on steam thank god i just grabbed it for 6 bucks so much fun

[@willdenham]

If you capture the castle in campaigne mode, and lose all those units, do they re-populate for the next battle or do the casualties stick?

[@themegajor]

thank you

[@willdenham]

How are you keeping selected units highlighted? Everytime I move to next selection, the previous unit dims so I can't group like you are able to do.

[@willdenham]

@@wafflesaurus_supreme Got it. Are all seige's this tough, as far as casualties or is it just because they don't offer seige engines in tutorial?

[@willdenham]

@@wafflesaurus_supreme Will the fire bomb throwing guys help with a seige? Do you buy seige weapons?

[@montayyellow2319]

how to use cannon?

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

Unfortunately, the cannon is bugged in this tutorial. You can completely ignore its existence. It has been a known issue for a very long time: forums.totalwar.com/discussion/35721/advanded-battle-tutorial-problem-confirmed-by-ca

[@Gibn89]

If you press ESC during the Intro when the old dude talks, the cannons will work. Just worked for me.

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

@@Gibn89 Completely forgot about this!

[@Tim_3638]

Thanks. Grabbed this for free on Steam as always facied trying the TW series, but wasn't sure. So far i'm loving it, however its crashed a couple of times mid game (frozen requiring forced shut down) and i'm running a high end laptop that is normally very stable with games. Any known issues with this title?

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

That's unfortunate. I only have a couple of hundred hours logged, all from desktops. It may crash occasionally, maybe every 50 hours or so? Nothing out of the ordinary. Being a 9 year old title, it's not optimized for modern hardware. It can be a bit CPU intensive, especially if you fast forward during a battle. Are your temperatures stable?

[@Tim_3638]

@@wafflesaurus_supreme Good to know thanks. Despite having a high end gfx card, I knocked back the graphics quality to high and have been playing this afternoon without probs (during lock down - thanks Steam!). I think your right; because its so old its not optimised for modern machines. PS I smashed the Castle Seige tutorial with your tips

[@ninomontalvo12345]

That was awesome, I get absolutely obliterated once the battle reaches the castle lol. Quick question bro, on the unit select panel, how do I select more than one? Whatever I left click I can only select individual units, same on campaign map

[@storminnorman7563]

Nino Montalvo hold left control

[@urbanEzio89]

Thank you so much I have getting my ass kicked by a "tutorial". You are doing a public service.

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

Glad that it was of some help. I'd highly recommend watching videos by MrSmartDonkeyLP and/or fishsandwichpatrol for more in-depth gameplay analysis. I learn something new each time I play.

[@MrHanderson91]

This is a terrible advanced tutorial for such a great game

[@wafflesaurus_supreme]

The difficulty definitely ramped up from the intermediate tutorial. I wanted to make a point that you can play sloppy and still win if you follow the advisor's instructions about using the ninjas correctly. Of course it is possible for a more cautious player to complete this by winning the fight for the walls.

[@MrHanderson91]

@@wafflesaurus_supreme one of the big issues is that you're giving units that really aren't super helpful at this level. I mean match locks are amazing on the defense, but pretty bad if you're trying to storm a castle. Not to mention that your hero has only a few men and runs out of ammo quickly. In a real game situation it would be better to just siege them out or get a large stack and auto resolve.

[@mxmdnlv]

So frustrated when failed this "tutorial" three times, really. Too hard for my weak self-esteem and broken mental health. Deleted the game and now feel myself like a total useless loser. And all desire to play any other game has disappeared :(

[@twistedoperator4422]

The tutorial is kinda garbage with regards to how you should set up sieges.