Ambush

[teafanatic]

I rarely ambush, but I had an excellent experience today -- with a dumb AI helping out.

I was Uesugi on VH, Date is coming towards me with a full stack, mostly yari and katana samurai, and I had 10 units, total, in Echigo, half ashigaru and three samurai units. I ambushed them using my units on the path towards my castle (fairly near castle) and tried a few battles -- all fail. Everytime I took out the archers completely. The AI would keep walking towards the other half of the map, and then regroup and turn around and attack me again with the samurai, at which point I'd lose.

I know if I wait in the castle, I'd be dead, because there was no way I could hold the castle. So, what to do?

Finally figured out a way to win -- ambush the enemy, killed all their archers and took out two units of yari samurai while we're at it, then retreated with my army mostly intact.

As I retreated, since I was near the castle, my army went back into the castle. Great! Their army couldn't reach my castle in the turn, so they had to wait a turn, which also gave my units a chance to heal up.

Then the siege -- the katana samurai almost got me, but I was able to, barely, eke out a victory. One of my generals (not my daimyo) died in the process, and I lost a few units, but their army was destroyed. Very satisfying.

My question though is this -- why is it that when I ambush them their units don't go into confusion? I remember in M2TW that would be the case, at least temporarily. That should be the case here too -- they should be pretty confused, if only for a short while.

[Adversity]

I have no idea but I'm usually very unsuccessful with ambushes because the enemy manages to regroup since their army and mine are so distant from each other. Also, I figure that ambushes only work when you have more infantry/cavalry than the enemy, at least in this game, eh?

[teafanatic]

I have no idea but I'm usually very unsuccessful with ambushes because the enemy manages to regroup since their army and mine are so distant from each other. Also, I figure that ambushes only work when you have more infantry/cavalry than the enemy, at least in this game, eh?

Yeah, which is why I think there needs to be some sort of confusion thrown in for a few minutes, or some sort of severe fighting penalty (-5 morale all across) or something. As it stands, ambushes are pretty useless. The fact that I had to withdraw says something.