Boy, do I ever suck

[Polski_orzel]

I really need some help with tactics and such. Everyone is beating me. I don't even think I'm being outsmarted, I just don't know why these things happen. I seem to beat the CPU relatively okay, but I dunno what to do about humans! I've only won one battle, and it was pretty much a 1v2, and now I'm thinking it was a fluke. Makes me quite sad ;(

What strategies and unit combinations do you guys use? I'm using forests and hills to my advantage, but I don't think I have the right balance of units

[Fratyinside]

I am pretty sure you could beat me so maybe play me? ROFL

[TheMonkeyMon]

I gave you rep just for being smart enough to ask for help instead of raging about imba and all that crap.

That beig said, what is your army composition usually? Do you have any replays you could post?

[Fratyinside]

Dude seriously though....me and you need to battle. You will 99% win me. I fail. A lot.

[naro]

Yeah, without an army composition and your generally used tactics its difficult for people to give detailed help- you'll probably get some generalised help on the other hand.

For example.
Ashigaru have rubbish morale and will break as soon as they sneeze- unless they are inside your generals aura. Then they tend to hold at least long enough to get decimated in melee. I tend to use them either as arrow fodder or to hold the line until a unit can flank the other unit.

[bushranger]

Cav wins games so pay attention to the way you use them and improve.
Learn to skirmish with archers so you dont lose half your army.
Dont be affraid to just rush in and try to catch your oponent off guard,you will need to be good with cav for this.

[Polski_orzel]

Well, I've been playing around with my unit comp. initially I'd have mostly archers, and a mix of shashimi spears and swordsmen. My archers have not won me a single game, and I'm sure I just don't know how to use them.

I've been unlocking new units slowly, so I'm going to try and make a more "elite" army. How would you recommend to use cavalry?

[.Mitch.]

1) Morale is key.

2) Morale is key.

3) Morale is key.

4) Don't bring cavalry unless you are very good at micromanaging battles. They are good for hitting units in the rear to give a -9 morale penalty, but if your not confident you can consistantly use them to do this, don't bring any, they will just be a wasted unit in your army that will add to the minus morale when they are inevitably killed by the enemy.

5) Don't bring archers if you can't micromanage battles. You will just inevitably leave them out in the open after their initial volley and you melee troops make contact, and they will get killed and start a chain rout.

6) Morale is key.

7) Don't let your General die before the enemies General, if he has died and you don't have at least 50% more troops remaining than your enemy. You have lost.

8) Always put your weakest troops in the front. Thus your opponent will in 90% of cases target the first melee unit he can with his archers, archers kill Ashigaru just as well as they kill Katana Samurai. You don't want you better troops under fire if you can get your weak troops to take the fire.

9) Kill the enemy General, if it costs you half of your army to do it, do it.

10) Likewise, worship your General, keep him close to the main area of melee fighting or you will lose, don't underestimate his rally ability, it will win you the game if you use it at the right time.

11) Battles 99% of the time come down to the wire, if you are losing, keep in it, your still in the game til the very end, I promise you. All of my MP battles so far have seen me come from behind, to win.

Just a few tips, and remember... Morale is key.

[xccam]

8) Always put your weakest troops in the front. Thus your opponent will in 90% of cases target the first melee unit he can with his archers, archers kill Ashigaru just as well as they kill Katana Samurai. You don't want you better troops under fire if you can get your weak troops to take the fire.


Actualy they kill ashigaru better due to ower armour, but this advice is still sound.

[rbn1995]

as mitch says morale is the key, i have played battles where killing the enemy general made units without any casualties rout.

[RTW warrior]

I think i may have played you Monkey Mon in a naval battle.

Anyway, in the games i've won Cavalry units have been vital, i've also turned 2 battles in my favour after feigning retreat with one or more of my units.

[naro]

Yeah well used cavalry is a killer... the only problem is using them well (for some people)

[Polski_orzel]

How do you feign retreat? Can you pretend to rout?

[RTW warrior]

I say feign retreat but it's more moving a unit back to lure my opponent's unit into a position where i can flank them with more than one unit, the two times i've tried it i've destroyed the enemy units in very quick time.

It helped me beat a Rank4 player earlier on, and no you can't pretend to rout.

[oldboyhammer]

11) Battles 99% of the time come down to the wire, if you are losing, keep in it, your still in the game til the very end, I promise you. All of my MP battles so far have seen me come from behind, to win.

Very true. One battle in particular saw about 80% of my army being killed off as well as my general. The guy I was playing against had his army up on the cliff but I managed to overcome him in the end with only a spear ashigaru and a bow ashigaru. I really thought I had lost that one.

[C.Maximus]

Specialize your army for a centered goal. But also keep it flexible

[Nationalist_Cause]

As an aside, can anyone explain how to upload replays (or link me) so us MP noobs can display our games for finer analysis?

[xccam]

Upload to somewhere like media fire, then post the link.

[naro]

For Win 7 users the replays are in a file here
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2\replays