Samurai in the early game (FOTS)

[Eco]

Some people start building line infantry as soon as possible. Actually I have been testing the katana kachi vs line infantry and it takes imperial infantry with the kneel technology to take them down. All the lesser line infantry don't do enough damaged and get massacred on melee. To me there is no choice. Early in the game the way to go is with the samurai.

[Felixlynch777]

The way to go is line infantry with a few melee units to back them up.

[Eco]

The way to go is line infantry with a few melee units to back them up.

Has this been confirmed? Not even with the kneel technology, does the basic infantry manages to kill the katana samurai. They will ran straight to them and a melee bloodbath will ensue, at least in my tests. Once you get imperial infantry that's another story.

[Humble Warrior]

I agree with Felixlynch777. You must have some melee troops as back up for the hard fighting. Line infantry alone won`t win it unless the enemy only has only line infantry too and he rarely has.

Alternatively get an adviser to train them up until they`re several Chevrons in skill, so they can fight hand-to-hand.

[Eco]

I agree with Felixlynch777. You must have some melee troops as back up for the hard fighting. Line infantry alone won`t win it unless the enemy only has only line infantry too and he rarely has.

Alternatively get an adviser to train them up until they`re several Chevrons in skill, so they can fight hand-to-hand.

Train them how? Are you saying if I put a foreign advisor in the army the units will gain chevrons?

[Cathal]

Train them how? Are you saying if I put a foreign advisor in the army the units will gain chevrons?

Yeah. If you move a foreign advisor into an army, you get a dialogue box asking if you want to "Train the Troops". Every turn they'll get some experience and can level up like that.

[Shugo560]

well it balances out, the line infantry will fire 1-3 volleys before melee even reach you, an the AI usually try forward charges so your lines are sending hundreds of bullets down range, so in the end lines can beat samurai if you use them properly, since you dont have the melee advantage use your range to good extent, if you see melee infantry that could easily break you, focus artillery (if you have any) primarily on them, AI usually spams the Levy Rifles so when your lines meet all you have to do is clean the mess your artillery made, quite simple

[Humble Warrior]

Yeah. If you move a foreign advisor into an army, you get a dialogue box asking if you want to "Train the Troops". Every turn they'll get some experience and can level up like that.

As Cathal says. It`s a surprisingly easy way to get experienced troops real fast.

[Felixlynch777]

Well personally I'm a defensive player so ranged suits me. I usually make my riflemen retreat when the enemy melee troops get too close and let my own melee troops attack whilst I reposition my riflemen to fire on the enemy flanks. Anyway the odds of having a all ranged army vs a all melee army are very slim.

[deamon32]

My early stack consists of 3-4 levi (starting to prefer 3, since they are almost useless once the melee start fighting and are just cav food) 4-5 spear, 2 yari samurai, 2 cav.

Its all about tying up as many of their melee units with your spearmen as possible, using yari samurai to either rush some of their infantry on the flanks, or to flank melee units already in combat and using the cav to clean up infantry for the most part. If you have more melee than they do, its pretty much a win every time, once all their melee are tied up start rushing their infantry, and shatter them with cav charges.