How to use Matchlocks like a Pro | Shogun 2

Discord full of chill gamers:
/ discord
Support my work and gain access to exclusive videos:
www.patreon.co...
Instagram:
/ hall_of_dishonor
Twitter:
/ dhiaalhanai
Dishonorable Merch: streamlabs.com...
My PC specs, capable of gaming at high resolutions and frame rates and chewing through video renders, with plenty of storage:
Intel Core i9 10900K
DeepCool Castle 240EX Liquid Cooler
ASUS TUF RTX3080 10GB
Gigabyte Aourus Elite Z590 Motherboard
32GB (2x16GB) Silicon Power RAM 3600MHz
Intel NVME SSD, 512GB
Samsung QVO 870 1TB (x2)
Samsung QVO 870 4TB (x2)
Crucial BX500 2TB (x2)
Seagate IronWolf 8TB HDD (x2)
Corsair RM850 Power Supply
Fractal Define 7 White Case, Solid Panel
Peripherals:
Drop ALT Mechanical Keyboard, with custom Samurai keycap set
Displays:
-ASUS VG27AQM (27", 280Hz, 1080p)
-ASUS ProArt PA248QV (24", 60Hz, 1200p)
Logitech G502 Lightspeed Mouse
Blue Ember XLR Condenser Microphone
GoXLR Audio Interface
Corsair HS70 Bluetooth Gaming Headset
Logitech G560 Speakers
Canon EOS M200 DSLR Camera
Elgato Stream Deck XL
Elgato Keylight Air
AverMedia GC570D 4K Capture Card
Software used for making videos & thumbnails:
OBS
Davinci Resolve Studio
Canva
#totalwar #shogun2

[@GodofToast]

The best muzzle flashes, smoke and sound for guns of any total war game by far

[@ArariaKAgelessTraveller]

Shameful for Warhammer gunpowder unit somehow perform worse

[@lukmaanpratomo6866]

Agreed. I watched his 1-hour long video about Shogun 2 and when he discussed the gunpowder units sounds, I thought he modded something in. When I played the game again (returned after almost 7 years), he wasn't joking. The sounds aren't modded, they were vanilla. Fucking vanilla sounds that sounded and reverberated WAY better than Warhammer. Although the sound aspect from the Warhammer titles sounds amazing in its own right, the battle ambience of it just sounds muffled and meh. In Shogun 2+its DLCs, you can LITERALLY hear the noise black powder units AND spears swords armors clashing in the midst of the chaos from the other side of the siege map.

[@sauronplugawy3866]

​​@@ArariaKAgelessTravellerMf has never seen Chorf Bulnderbussies obliterate every unit.

[@mrsherman2906]

​@@sauronplugawy3866we're talking about smoke and sound not the power of a unit (unless you can't read)

[@JB-xl2jc]

I think they're identical to Empire Total War

[@AceArata]

As both and Oda and Otomo player, i laugh whenever the AI starts teching up and spending so much on samurai only for them to be obliterated by a few volleys from my veteran matchlock ashigaru Personally I take lots of inspiration from tercio pike and shot formations. When total war warhammer came out, i was saddened that matchlocks seemed to be so much worse in that game, but the strategy still worked marvelously with thunderers and handgunners

[@therac197]

Look north for inspiration to exploit the enemy AI🦁🌌

[@flaggy185]

Who needs samurai when You have NUMBERS And guns

[@ketzerm8672]

In TW Warhammer, Chevron Formation works well for me

[@ienmefamo]

​@@flaggy185Japan truly having good old liberty

[@secularist1]

Use hills - the steeper, the better. Place your melee line at the foot of a hill, and your matchlocks behind them, further up the slope. The enemy will engage your melee units on the flat plain, allowing your matchlocks a (relatively) unobstructed line-of-sight over your melee line.

[@makeromaniagreatagain9697]

Unless the enemy has bow infantry, in which case you're screwed.

[@BEEETRUS]

@@makeromaniagreatagain9697 matchlock outrages bows right

[@kolpere1625]

@@makeromaniagreatagain9697 well, vs the ai you can do the following: -First, download the square formation for yari samurai mod. It makes the worthless piece of shit yari samurai in the most useful unit of the entire damm game lol. There should be a reason to unlock that yari tech, right? well, you you have one. -Place your army in an area with lots of bush and the matchlocks just on the limit of the bush, then bait them with the general (dont forget to turn off the automatic fire and turn on the fire by rank!) -wait until the units are in the shooting range (not shoot just after they entered, wait a little more until the entire formation is on range to activate shoot) -Do the same with the bows. Normally when is a offensive battle for you is easier because the ai tend to stay passively waiting for you even with a bigger army in a hill. Bait all their arrows with the shooties one by one. -Repeat step 5 and 6 and voila! you will have 3 units of matchlock samurai with 500 kills per unit lol.

[@zacharyharwell351]

@@BEEETRUS Nope; there's a range difference of at least 20 I believe in favor of the bow (not sure what that translates to in actual range increments but its pretty brutal in a head-to-head)

[@ralado31]

​@@BEEETRUSunfortunately, no lol.

[@King_Wheezy930]

Crazy how people die when you shoot then unlike newer total wars

[@TheTeremaster]

I mean tbh, people didn't die when you shot them in real life. It wasn't until the late 1600s that guns had the power to punch through armour. Hell soldiers armed with early pistols were trained to basically touch their enemy with the end of the barrel before firing it if they were facing knights or men at arms

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

@@TheTeremaster i am aware that in reality soldiers were instructed to withhold their fire until the enemy was within 40 meters, both due to inaccuracy and the need to punch through armor. Even then, the weapons in WH TW aren't capable of dealing any form of lethal damage at any distance, thanks to healthbars. The weapons are crap and they sound that way, too.

[@me67galaxylife]

@TheTeremaster Hum no that’s a myth. Actual data from estimates to actual period musketball retrieved and retro-engineered reveals that it was precise enough to be used in the late 1500s (and probably before) and was generally enough to penetrate armor. Problem arised when people adapted and thickened armor on purpose to counter bullets. Which is why cavalryman were told to get as close as possible before shooting. But if muskets and arquebus were do useless, nobody would have used them

[@DrCruel]

Apparently they were good enough against samurai wearing lacquered iron plates on leather.

[@zeyadalbadawi8774]

That armour was specially forged to be anti-guns tho ​@@TheTeremaster

[@Dennis-ud2nh]

Makes me happy that people still play and analyze this game so many years later. Me too am also just recently learning more nuanced things in each campaign.

[@rebidiom2578]

Fire by rank is great only when you are capable of microing them and only once during the start of the fight since it is as bugged as in empire by the need of every model in a unit having their gun reloaded and every model being in formation. In short use fire by rank once and after that deactivate fire by rank until the end of fight.

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

also in MP can be useful for making matchlock ashigaru trade effectively with Samurai

[@rebidiom2578]

​@@dishonorable_daimyo1498 nah three line matchlock ashigaru in ranked by fire is great to weaken no dachi charge and follow it with yari wall or your own no dachi charge.

[@smonk3074]

Also if your enemy has no bows,you're on a hill, your lines are properly set up, and your guns are safe from flanking etc. you don't need to worry about the drill being disrupted by your men dying. This is the ideal situation to utilize the destructive potential of fire by rank with some matchlock units being able to have 4-5 ranks fire before the lines clash if they have enough reload skill.

[@mark140363]

You are right that there is a bug. For some matchlock units, (I forget which as I don't have the file open just now), the officer has not been assigned a gun in the data table. He can therefore never re-load and so the unit goes through the 3-line sequence one time then stops, because they are waiting for him to reload - which he can't. So you have to switch to fire at will at this point. Alternatively, subscribe to the mod that corrects this bug.

[@mrsherman2906]

@@mark140363 okay that's interesting, can you link me the mod?

[@bobskywalker2707]

I quick note on fire by rank. While it doesn't work very well in base Shogun 2, it's very effective and works perfectly fine in Fall of the Samurai.

[@TriggeringOpinionsandFacts]

Fire by rank is so great I wish there just wasn’t the delayed response issue. Even commanding them to attack a particular unit doesn’t have them stop and fire the moment the unit is in range.

[@kolpere1625]

Basically the solution to this is a mod to make the yari samurai having the square formation, place them and enjoy watching the massacre. There is no way only one unit (yari hero) has the square formation, right?

[@NorbertNagy-y8g]

missing the funcion The gun reloding lot of time not reloded guns and will starting relode

[@ayomri1914]

Morale breaking effect of matchlock is overpowered even more because the combat is based on the dynamic of battle. Also the AI has a tendancy to charge you with samurai units so given high accuracy you'll absolutely shred them then push the ashigaru that are right behind them in yari wall while the Matchlock's skitmish mode makes them retreat. Push the flanks with sword units and use Yari Cav to wipe out missile units once dealt with start hammer and anvil. Bonus if there is a steep hill behind you then the Matchlock can go high up and shoot down over your melee lines. This is how you win every battle assuming you're not terribly out numbered. Matchlocks 10/10 defensive units. Portuguese Tercos 1000/10 overall unit.

[@silverlightsun]

Put a matchlock on a wall, put Ashigaru in front of the wall, on the low ground... start to count bodies dropped.

[@Sparticulous]

Yes! The yari are great at dying slowly so the matchlocks can shred the enemies from above.

[@WolfTheTrueKing]

Also when used aggressively the micro intensive pike and shot works wonders and can make your army extremely mobile on the battlefield since the idea is to exploit gaps that the enemy hasn't engaged with matchlock, while the units the enemy has engaged are formations with matchlock and Yaris. They're bogged down with yari wall, you swoop around and fire at the flanks

[@mark140363]

Good video, well thought out and presented. Lots of food for thought in there. Matchlocks: Fire by rank can be highly effective. The matchlock unit needs protection - behind the bamboo screen (so we're talking about a defensive battle here). Placed centrally opposite a bridge in a river crossing battle, I have had a matchlock unit rack up more than 800 kills (defending a river crossing against a 4 stack enemy). The trick is to chain the bamboo screen to left and right with the archer barricade (the one that provides no protection but does make a linear obstacle). Then between the bamboo screen and the barricades, place the defensive unit of your choice (the enemy will be funneled towards these points) so yari ashigaru in spear wall, or naginata samurai if you're feeling extravagant. Step the archers and matchlocks back from the screen/barricade a couple of paces (it's crazy the tiny gaps the AI manages to sneak units through), then you can pretty much zoom in on the matchlock unit and watch them go through their drill as they annihilate the enemy. The reason the matchlocks are vulnerable to melee infantry in other battles is because there is no fatigue penalty to movement for infantry units in the game (for me this is perhaps the biggest game breaking screw-up in Shogun). If you apply the fatigue penalties that are in the database to all infantry units, the enemy will not close to contact so quickly, allowing at least the first two ranks to fire and, chances are, the third rank won't need to. Nanban Trade Port: I nearly always go for this for access to the imported matchlock - guaranteed if I am Chosokabe as I want the extra trade route from the port. Rather than leave a monk there to counter the religion, I put an upgraded temple in two neighbouring provinces to spread religion into the nanban province. I use monks aggressively as anti-agent units (convert character) so getting 3 of them early is not unusual for me. Siege defence: Placing a unit off-the-wall for the AI to target (instead of the units on the wall) and luring them into the range of the guns looks like a bait tactic. It is one of several exploits that I have come across for defensive sieges that, taken together, make me reluctant to fight defensive siege battles at all. Bow Ashigaru: These guys get a bad rep. Recruit them in a province with an Artisan, give them armour from the encampment chain, deploy them in loose formation (preferably in trees), and have them in range of your commander for morale boost. They will defeat bow samurai.

[@kape2978]

How do you get access to palisades and screens? I swear I've been in defensive land battles before but I don't have access to those.

[@mark140363]

@@kape2978 You always get them when you are defending a river crossing. Put your army on the bridge to make sure it is a river crossing battle and not open field. For open field battles, you only get them if your army has been stationary for a whole turn prior to the battle. They can be useful in open field battles, just arranged to provide obstacles to the enemy and force it through choke points, but the best use is at river crossings because the enemy already has to funnel through the choke point bridge/ford.

[@kape2978]

@@mark140363 I see, gonna try this next time!

[@mark140363]

@@kape2978 I should clarify, they are in the campaign game only. I don't think they are available in custom battles.

[@jaywerner8415]

Speaking of dealing with enemy archers, Their is a REASON the "smith" chain has 2 different paths. Melee Attack is good, but if you get killed before you get their...... you see my point. The Armor chain does help counter Archers with the Extra armor (plus 5?), combined with the Armory "camp" upgrade (plus 2? or 3?) and you got yourself like.... eh screw it i can't remember but its a NICE amount of extra armor. After all, Melee Attack can always be improved with SKILL (xp), but Armor is STATIC and can only be improved via upgrades. It also occurs to me that Bonzai charges from No Dashi Samurai are the melee counter to Gun troops in the field. (since Bonzai freezes their moral in place)

[@akshayjb8205]

For me shogun has the best gunpowder feature in total war

[@imperious8516]

As a player who is generally a “SNAIL”, I tend to include 4 matchlock ashigaru in my army so after taking a castle I stay there for a while able to defend it.

[@enriquepincheira3299]

People really underestimate just how effective of morale breakers guns are in this game To not mention the ignore armor properties. In my opinion it makes guns specially suited for focus firing on small number important units like heroes and specially generals Sniping a general while peppering normal troops can lead to very quick routs

[@kape2978]

To get matchlocks early I just invade otomo lands as early as possible. Just started an Oda campaign and placed 4 each of yari and bow ashigaru then shipped them to Bungo and invaded. Instant nanban access. Burned it down though and moved my nanban port to Iwari and turned it into a matchlock factory while slowly consuming kyushu and northern Japan.

[@thatonepersonwhoair-dropsy268]

I once had a single unit of Levvy Garrison (Fall of The Samurai) and they managed to hold of an ENTIRE MASSIVE flank offensive, only losing around 50 men, and making almost the whole enemy army (Minus about 7 attacking on different fronts) rout, including their general. They were also Garrison Infantry

[@Supha123]

Honestly i think guns are better in this game than napoleon

[@youdonthavetoknowsssh8154]

On the field, i use the U formation: Close combat units on both sides and mathlock in the middle. But yeah, using matchlock to attack or siege is extremely hard.

[@RyanJosepher]

I'd love a Bannerlord like Shogun2 mix game. 1st person Banzai. Anyway, if you're using mods, a few will make the range of guns longer, at 180 range. 200, 220 range depending on the unit. (Hero, Veteran) Ultimate immersive mod I think does this.

[@marxel4444]

I know its not the OG Shogun 2. But i really REALLY loved how they inplemented Gunpowder units in Fall of the Samurai! The artillery system is amazing and the units manning castles is also great! I wish we could get empire or napoleon total war on the engine they used for FotS!

[@Random-World-Eater]

I use monk bow units with matchlocks, monks will shoot down all the enemy archers and the machlocks will protect the monk bows from any dumb enough to charge

[@Aro883]

Really like your take on matchlocks though I must say I probably wont use them for any other purpose than to fill up my garrisons, it is not because they are useless but bc CA made gun units a mess since empire, nothing in these game is as infuriating as watching how your unit that was sent to flank the enemy and shoot in their back starts doing a fuckin tap dance contest instead, and of course the rest of the unit waits for these models to get into place bc they are true bros and wont shoot if even one of them is not in the right place, like what the fuck is going on, or their shitty "stun lock" like when they get shot and wont shoot back bc again true line infatry cant shoot if their line isnt complete, so they wait forever for soldiers from back ranks to fill the gaps, meanwhile getting shot again, or unit randomly not shooting bc fuck you thats why. These problems are even more visible in FOTS as its more gun-centric than vanilia shogun, when everything works fine playing with guns is fantastic, but really if i got a choice between bringing gun unit and wondering if this time everything will be ok or just getting anything else that i know is reliable i prefer second option.

[@flaggy185]

Good: Clean Hills Defence sieges With way to retreat Bad: Bad hills. (Mostly too accidental) / in the lowest part of a hill Too close to the enemy without support

[@danielomar9712]

This is why FOTS is a literal godsend to me I cannot in my life play Shogun 2 , big skill issue

[@TriggeringOpinionsandFacts]

I’m down to run some rounds with you Heavenly-donuts on steam

[@Nobunaga-Ducky]

Why is this game getting hate?its way better then most total war games.Battle,armor guns etc all so good.some people are really dumb.I tries warhammer 3 let me tell you its weird af.people this days have shit taste

[@machaiping]

From what I can gathered, one group hates it for not being Europe Total War, XXX era rehash bogaloo, despite the majority of the historical Total War games were set in Europe! This group can be seen crying in the early days of Three Kingdoms announcement too. Another group is "Muh unit variety!" thinking that "one culture (Japanese) = no unit variety." despite this game actually has as much variety of units as other Total War when you take the unit skins off and look at their functions. The example of the latter: Spear Militia, Town Guard, Saracen Militia, Spear Sergeant, Dismounted Sipahi Lancer, and these have their factional variants on top, from Medieval 2. That sounds like a lot of variety of Spear units compared to Yari ashigaru, Yari Samurai, Naginata Samurai, Naginata Warrior Monk, right? Wrong! The Medieval 2 difference are actually skin-deep, as in the end they all do the same function as shielded spear unit but with different stats. While the Shogun 2 example of spear units do not share role with one another at all (You're not going to use Naginata Warrior Monk to receive cavalry charge in place of Yari Ashigaru, for example.) and recruiting one over another depends entirely on what you want out of that units. And this group also likely to praise Warhammer Total War as having most unit variety when, just like Medieval 2 example above, most of those uniqueness are just skin-deep with same actual function.

[@Raptorsified]

I play completely vanilla except for one mod. I think it's called 'realistic hinawa' or something and raises the range of the match locks and increases the speed of the reload animation. I just want to use fire by rank and watch the lines of men cut the Samurai down centuries early.

[@GRIM_MOD]

how do i get mods for this game?

[@mark140363]

@mrsherman2906 The mod to fix the matchlock unit can be found by searching for 'Officer Fix for Matchlock Units' in the steam workshop for Shogun 2.

[@mrsherman2906]

In short: matchlock are effective if you actually use your brain and stop whining about the low range.

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

this man matches his locks

[@ArariaKAgelessTraveller]

The only complain about Shogun 2 i have is how Horse archer firing arc is Sooo bad compared to Medieval 2 Even if arrows are much more lethal in this game

[@mrsherman2906]

@@ArariaKAgelessTraveller yeah, in medieval 2 they have a circular arc while in this game they have the same arc as a normal bow/gun unit unless you use the swooping crane ability

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

horse archers in med2 were cancer, I am happy that they made them a much more specialist unit in Shogun 2

[@konstantinriumin2657]

Every unit of guns you take is one less unit of Bow Monks you take. Unless it's fire rain rocket or shimazu heavy gunner, matchlocks are just too bothersome and micro intensive to use in offensive armies.

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

Guns are far more cost effective than bow warrior monks. Bow warrior monks are a waste in the majority of field battles that are over before they can fire a few volleys. Whistling arrows are a poor substitute for the constant morale debuff that guns provide. Not to mention matchlock ashigaru can be pumped out of any castle once researched, while bow warrior monks need 2 whole building slots.

[@therac197]

Pair them up with a Yari unit. Problem solved.

[@zachfred958]

My favorite thing in shogun 2 is to take a full 20 stack of fire rockets to a siege and just carpet bomb the place.

[@ARTEMISXIX]

ngl I've never found matchlocks to get few kills. When I do decide to use matchlocks early I use chevron formations on my cheap yari wall frontline with matchlocks between giving them absolute line of sight over incoming enemies with archers hiding within the chevrons. This let's you push a line of cheap units semi-aggressively into far more expensive armies. This way they get 70% of the kills even if I only take 4 units of them, if they get front charged I narrow the gap, if they get rear charged I push my yari samurai reserves on the cav

[@ARTEMISXIX]

archers hate this one little trick (just move closer, accept losing a few units, blast them to smithereens)

[@MTerrence]

Yari ashigaru, the well-acknowledged hidden power behind every Shogun 2 strategy.

[@MrBb3k]

The days of your when you could upgrade them to be like machine guns 😂🤣 reload skill, inspiration and accuracy...

[@xleb1976]

matchlocks are underrated change my mind

[@Pharis492]

wait why your cam not shaking when the rocket hits? is that a mod?

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

You can disable it in the preferences script

[@yorkshire_tea_innit8097]

Christian coloniser campaigns are so fun. Just blasting men away from castle walls. And the navy is much more powerful.

[@Byenie0912]

Makes sense that fire by rank is better in FOTS than vanilla. The weapons accuracy are much better and the soldiers are better trained

[@Z4rius]

Matchlocks on a defensive campaign are very good, i was on a losing campaign, my armies were very far away and i got betrayed by my allies now im facing 3 fronts against full stacks armies. i spammed matchlocks and yaris on a siege battle, they did the work although i lost. the armies i faced were now very thined out with only half or less a stack remaining which made retaking territory very easy.

[@Sparticulous]

One way i found to deal with siege defense, is to put your melee troops on the closest part of the outside wall. The archers or matchlocks can usually shoot over them. The melee units will die, but they are garrison troops and the time it takes for the ai to grind through the yari wall, the bowmen and matchlocks will route them. I found 6 ashigaru bowman was enough to hold a fort until you can get matchlocks

[@OriginalGazGoose]

Just play Oda

[@sasuofficial3448]

Guns are great in a ambush ??? Let them stay inside a forrest and destroy the enemy c:

[@flaggy185]

Guns conquered Japan Guns and a lot of cheap infantry

[@MedievalWarfare]

I know my handgunners might be disappointed on me saying this. Oda Matchlock Ashigaru Rocks !

[@Banter-vw7ck]

I never liked the base game shogun 2 musket unit behaviour, its just clunky and reminds me of how painful the units in Empire could be. Curiously FoTS has the firearms unit behave far more sensibly despite being the same game.

[@TheMuncyWolverine]

honorabru

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

victory wipes away dishonah

[@CapitalTeeth]

Nothing beats successfully baiting the AI into charging their cav units straight towards your matchlocks that are hiding in forests. >:)

[@deadtako]

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if all total war players were made into actual military officials…

[@tommyortiz6623]

I actually pull my units into one line and stagger them so one shot then they move back behind the next one ready to shoot. It’s lot of micromanaging but pays off big time

[@Kalenz1234]

Do all matchlocks completely ignore armour? I thought they ignored a certain percentage

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

ignored completely. The exception is bulletproof Samurai who have a script that converts the shot into arrows and treats them as such.

[@KyoushaPumpItUp]

Matchlock units with the kneel fire (from fots) mod are monsters in the battlefield.

[@garak55]

Fast yari samurai as a reserve unit to shore up the line were the ashigarus are wavering is my favourite use of the unit. They can also counter charge and absolutely murder ennemy cavalry that would file in between the line allowing me to space out the yari walls more and shoot better. They're not a very good unit overall but they really have their uses.

[@kolpere1625]

still waiting for the 1 hour asmr matchlock video massacring ashigaru units nonstop. bruh

[@fedda9999]

11:43 how do you Get Bamboo fence, i dont know how to Get it

[@sethguest781]

All tremble before the fearsome matchlock men of the Oda Clan!

[@Shroud83]

I tried using Matchlock on the flanks... waiting until the battlelines are joint and shooting into the sides of the enemy formations. It's a lot of micro, especially if the enemy still has its cavalry. Checkerboard formation (as here in the video) and actual Tercio formation might be workable but it seems like a lot of micro, too. In the heat of battle I like to use easy and reliable tactics... matchlocks are "cool" and really make you smile if it works. But the outcome is just too random for me.

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

checkerboard is braindead easy, half the time you can set it up at deployment phase and just leave them to do their thing Matchlocks are often less micro intensive than cavalry lmao

[@fastonitix]

Quickest way to use guns: Otomo

[@therexbellator]

Really good informative video. Thanks!

[@le2amigos474]

I cannot place the bamboo wall

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

only works in defensive battles in campaign, and in multiplayer matches, for some reason you cannot enable them in custom battles

[@hihowareyu]

Still cant believe this was made during ps3 era

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

That was more or less the last decent gen of games. Post 2012 gaming has been crap barring a handful of exceptions

[@dr.phil.pepper3325]

How good is the checkboard in this game?

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

not as braindead as in warhammer here you actually need to stretch the guns out because they can't fire through one another meaning this battle array has issues in tight spaces (like in forts where it can be tough to bring all your guns to bear) your frontline also needs experienced or high morale units or it will crumble thanks to casualties and friendly fire overall it's very effective but with multiple asterisks

[@LtVictor]

I love fresh content for a game getting this old!

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

Make sure to catch a stream sometime

[@kusarigama7899]

Good video a criticism though. I think you and me both agree that bows in this game generally under perform but are needed for sieges in a minimal capacity early to cheese (I watched your bow video.) So… I have been this way for years and while it IS boring and optimal my army is generally 1 general 4 bow units and 15 Yari Ashigaru who just encircle with Yari wall with rushing. I also never rice economy because it’s never worth (wish it was). So I could see bringing 1 matchlock unit just for moral debuffs but no more than that. Guns are better than bows by far. Edit: You really though never made a case to why bringing them over another melee unit in SP was a better option. Melee rushing is stupidly strong.

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

there are diminishing returns to bringing more melee units to battle

[@kusarigama7899]

@@dishonorable_daimyo1498 I disagree the more melee units the easier it is to envelop, replace at the end of battle and help the part of the line that may have problems. No matter what your going to take casualties it’s not always going to be at a point where you can recruit another Yari Ashigaru (far easier to replace) than a Imported Matchlock Ashigaru/Cav/Samurai unit.

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

no competent player is going to let their matchlock ashigaru get charged by cavalry, if that is happening then you f'ed up somewhere else. It doesn't take much calculus to figure that if you have 15 melee units, it's much better to get a unit of guns then a 16th melee unit.

[@kusarigama7899]

@@dishonorable_daimyo1498ot my point maybe I am not explaining it right I will try again. We both agree that guns are better than bows. But melee, particularly Yari Ashigaru, are better than everything else you can get including guns because they can be recruited anywhere and in one turn. Guns until you get Gunpowder mastery can only be made from a Naban Port. Samurai on average take two turns to make and require a building as well. From a power gamer perspective we both can agree just spamming Yari Ashigaru with a small contingency of bow units (even though Bows are generally only good in sieges) is the way to go on higher difficulty. I even yielded to saying if you can get one unit of matchlocks in an army it could make that power stack better. It’s not about your matchlocks being charged (a claim I never made.) it’s about justifying that one extra slot when you could get a Yari Ashigaru or even a Katana Samurai if you do not want to spam Ashigaru. That Katana Samurai to me will pull more than that matchlock unit. Edit: your guns are more than likely going to be shot by bows than anything not charged

[@kusarigama7899]

It’s why Rush armies were so funny and potent online is because they are so braindead and effective. Now pitch it against the AI who will never match your melee capabilities even before Stand and Fight.

[@magnusred2945]

I love Shogun 2, do you use Darthmod?

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

No

[@magnusred2945]

@@dishonorable_daimyo1498 can you try it

[@Vadim_Ibragimov]

Guns for the guns god!

[@P4GYY]

dude wtf is a matchlock, how was that not explained? lol? im a med 2 / rome total war player.

[@adumbassroomba]

Personally when it comes to more late game usage of matchlock my armies are usually composed of 3 ashigaru 2 no dachi and at least 5 guns with 2-3 archers (either samurai or monk depending on the tech). The matchlock would be the first line closely followed in the line by the no dachi who would charge through to meet the enemy melee with a banzai buff, followed by the yari wall slowly to hold the enemy in place and pull back the no dachi. I'll definitely give a try to the staggered line you mentioned, maybe its just what I need for those weird battles were my peasants just abandon me to die.

[@shhea]

Can anyone tell me what a 'Staggered Formation' is? He said "allow me to show you" and I didn't really see what he was showing...Anyone? :)

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

yari ashigaru in yari wall in the first line with channels between them for matchlocks to fire. Explained right after

[@onsholo]

I like keeping my gunpowder units in the flanks and use them to move behind the enemy and shoot them in the back when they engange with my frontline melee

[@Ahmadabdal_]

im trying to learn shogun 2 but i have so much problem dealing with the garissons in early game even when i play on normal difficulty. i take huge huge losses which makes sense but it cripples me in the long term

[@helly7385]

No you are doing it wrong way dude, you don’t attack the garrison in castles, you instead continue the siege and after few turns when they’ll run out of resources then they are forced to sally out and it’s now a field battle instead of doing a siege battle where enemy unit will fight to death

[@dishonorable_daimyo1498]

he didnt specify if he was autoresolving or not so idk

[@machaiping]

Depending on the garrison. If they have no bow units and towers but you did, you can just camp your bow unit outside of the wall just within range of their unit's patrol route and whittle them down before climbing the wall/bust down the gate. Sometimes if they only have a Samurai Retainer (level 1 castle), a single Bow Ashigaru boosted by General's Inspire ability should be able to kill them all before running out of ammo, which works even on Hard Mode at the least from my experience. But on higher difficulties, sometime sieging them until they're forced to sally out can be a better strategy. Or if the pre-battle stat page showing that you have overwhelming advantage, then autoresolve could be a better option as the repair fee for the castle is minimum and you take next to no losses.

[@mark140363]

Follow the teachings of Sun Tzu: > To be certain of victory, attack the places your enemy does not defend. > To be certain of avoiding defeat, defend the places your opponent doesn't attack. Apply this strategy to the campaign level map and your campaign will become easier for you.

[@miguelangelcifuentescruz689]

Have more arrowmen than them, and then systematically outflank and kill their arrow units, works every time.