Best way to use Kisho Ninja?

[Luderhow]

It's also preferrable to another unit of calvary because the enemy tends to have a yari ash around their general often so the ninjas would be able to last a bit longer.

[blixs89]

It's also preferrable to another unit of calvary because the enemy tends to have a yari ash around their general often so the ninjas would be able to last a bit longer.

But unlike cavalry they can't break off from the fight. If they do the enemy general will run them down.

[Xelathur]

You have to either use the range advantage and fling bombs, or just do final charges against already wavering troops. They suck in prolonged melee, and cannot retreat once engaged.

[Raystorm]

I like them best when going on the offense, especially since the AI is gonna pick a nice hill and live on it. Invis up, toss some bombs, and the AI starts to scramble, let your army take care of the confusion

[Shimazu Dufresne]

Kisho work best on castle assaults wen they can sneak around and climb up the fortresses back wall! Make sure as soon as they are inside u enable stealth or enemy archer will rip them to shreds! Best to use 2 units for this but 1 unit can capture the keep while the other engages any infantry in that level.

[midchi]

I would like to see an example of Kisho being used correctly. I've tried everything with them but the only thing that works is to use them as front line skirmishers.

You might want to take a look at these:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=437785

It's not SP but the idea's the same

[Hurricane Brad]

I haven't used them very much yet, but so far I've found them somewhat useful as a flanking force. I hide them off to the side and have them sneak up on the enemy after they've advanced past them.

They are also pretty good at running down routing foot soldiers as they seem to run quite a bit faster.

[Xelathur]

My basic army now have only 1 unit of Kisho Ninja, in favor for another matchlock ashigaru unit. They just can't stand long enough in a fight to be worth it. They need constant babysitting.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

I like to deploy them in front of my archers, I usually have 8 to 10 units of archers (preferably monks because of their range and trained in a province with the encampement upgrade that gives an acuracy bonus).

Now, it's useless to place soldiers in front of your archers to protect them because the AI's usually 6 units of archers will decimate them, giving their army the oportunity to charge and cut down your archers. However they can't see the ninja and thus politely walk their archers into range of my archers who will then decimate them (I make all 10 archer units focus on 1 unit and take out their archer units 1 by 1) When the AI marches his infantry forward my ninja will bomb and then fight them, a battle line of 4 to 6 Hattori kisho ninja units trained in a province with a ninja fortress (+5 experience for kisho ninja units) and an armourer (the upgrade from the encampement giving them a + 2 armour) are pretty good fighters and can hold their own against most enemies.

If you are the Hattori you should have also hidden some katana or yari samurai suicide troops to storm the AI in the flanks or rear so it doesn't commit all it's forces at once to the fight against your main Kisho ninja/archer battle line.

[Mellon]

i got ambushed by 3 yari ashigaru when moving my ninja (obtained for completing the research mission of the Hatorri) and wiped them out with just those 45 men. Guess they arent that bad.

[bobtheubilder]

They always get detected prematurely for me, can't sneak them into a castle no matter what I do. I never use them anymore, not good enough and too expensive.

[jadesympathiser]

I'd like to know this too. This post:



suggests to me that they do appear in naval battles but I didn't think land units could take part. I've certainly never seen it and I don't think it was in Empire. Can anyone confirm/deny?

All i know for certain is that if say you have archers on board a boat, in naval battle you dont have extra archers. They just hide in the hull i guess

[joeman_0]

I think i figured it out!

You put them in single line formation (45 width x 1 height or 60x1), depending on your battle size.

Start using them only after the skirmish phase is over. They are very weak to arrow fires, and if they get swarmed, they will die real quick. So use them as reseves and wait until your melee infantries tie up with enemy's. Try to preserve them because once they to high level, they are very good.

let them throw bombs, you don't have to flank, but target big blobs of enemies.

activate guard mode, so if any of them are attacked, they still throw bombs

AI will attack them with calvary, so try to guard them with yari cavs.

It's better than build them in master bowmaker province so that they are 60 accuracy right off the bat. With some battle experience, they will get to 70 something accurary. But 70 isn't that great as it would still kill some your own men. So try to target big blobs of enemy mostly.

If enemy is in a forest, you can win archer dual against AI.

After you run out of bombs, then slice and dice your enemies I suppose.

I carry two in my armies but not more than 2 because they need micromanagement.

[darkkrusty]

I use them to fully ambush in field battles, i move say my Ashigaru Line into the Woods up on a Slight Slope, and have my ninja at the Foot just ahead of the Ashigaru, Pop stealth just before they are spotted, they throw their bombs, then i pull them back and send my ashigaru line smashing into the disrupted enemy line, i then split my Ninja's (2 go one way, 2 go the other) and sweep them around the flanks while their cav is engaged with mine, the Ninja then fall into the rear of their troops and it does not matter how good the troops they field are, they WILL get slaughtered and WILL rout.

[mvm900]

I usually use them to go around the entire enemy army and try to kill the general. Basically just use them like ninja on the strategic map but for battles. Other than that they are somewhat useful for taking down other high quality units. They also run pretty fast as I found out when they had to disengage some unit.

[Final advance]

I actually find them extremely useful. Get them close as you can to the wall on the oposite side of the main army, preferably next to a tower. Climb the walls sneakily to the top tier capturing all gates and towers, sit on the tenshu and await your victory. Using this strategy i once won a siege on a castle level province without firing a shot, or drawing my blade.

[jupsto]

Best use is to disband them, they are objectively worse than a katana samurai.

but obviously don't because they can be fun to use, and its just a game. but seriously they are not good units at all in 9 out of 10 battles they will contribute nothing, or friendly fire.