using bows correctly?

[HouND_DoG]

so im chosokabe so i use bows a lot because of the clan bonus's, but im not that great at these games i just think there a lot of fun, so my question is how do i use them correctly? Deployment starts you off with the archers infront of my sword samurais so they can fire a few volleys but the enemy quickly runs up and i only get 2-3 volleys off before i got to run them behind my swordmen.

How should i use these guys? should i deploy them in front line, behind my sword men or what? I need best tactics to get best results with lots of bow warriors. Thanks guys, really appreciate it.

[oppaiO_O]

i always put my bow dudes in the front line and let them fire but once the enemy is charging me i charge all my dudes that are behind them like sword spear and such towards them and so my bow men never stop firing though make sure you charge them before they get too close thats what i do though experiment a bit and you'll find your style soon enough

[HouND_DoG]

ah thank you, think someone can put up a replay of good bow usage?!

[krisslanza]

I'm sure it just depends on the situation. It's ideal to not have the bowmen fire into melee, because they hit your own men as well. However, you can station them on the flanks or rear of a melee, so it's more likely to hit the other guys instead of your own (basically have your archers fire from whatever side your own troops aren't in).

At least, I think so. Unless the battle is pretty close, I just tend to fire into my troops anyway.

[Noif de Bodemloze]

If there is any good hill on the battlemap. Gather your army and archers there, but make sure your achers have save spot and guarded, if they will be flanked by enemy cavalry.

[baldrick13]

try putting them near a forest with some yari ashigaru hiding there and turn on skirmish mode, it might help against enemy cav.

[baldrick13]

Try putting them near a forest with some yari ashigaru hiding there and turn on skirmish mode, it might help against enemy cav.

[zhiphius]

I generally place them behind my frontline infantry, the AI tend to attack with their melee more than they tend to use archers to wear them down first anyway. I use my cavalry to hunt down their archers instead.

In defensive battles i feel you get more volleys off by not moving them which is why i do what i do
Granted placing them at the front and moving your melee through them to engage is also a good strategy.


in offensive battles i place them first to wear down enemy units, killing as many as i can until they are provoked to attack or until i run out of ammo

[eXistenZ]

when out of arrows, throw your bows to them

[zhiphius]

when out of arrows, throw your bows to them

thats why i like samurai archers Cant count the amount of times those have saved my ass when severely outnumbered

[Noif de Bodemloze]

when out of arrows, throw your bows to them

If you're out of bows, then throw stones.

[baldrick13]

If you're out of bows, then throw stones.

And when your out of stones...then throw your general.

[John Adams]

There are a lot of ways to use your bows. First you should take into account how many of them there are. If you have more then four of them in your army, you can deploy four ahead of your soldiers, so that they can fell several of the enemy as they charge. Then retreat, as you have been using them.

If you have more then four, I suggest you have a second line behind your initial infantry line. While your first line of archers is retreating, your second line can begin a continuous fire upon the enemy soldiers.

Tactics depend, however, on several crucial decisions. What army is your opponent general fielding? What is the terrain? What army are you fielding? And so forth.

If you have the infantry, you can send your archers initially to the flanks, supported by spearmen (to ward off cavalry), so that they might in this way engage and divide up your opponents army.

Generally, in battle, like seeks out like. If there are archers, you should engage them first if equal strength. If superior strength, you should engage the archers of the enemy with enough men that your edge stands. Any men not needed for this purpose can be selected to begin targeting the opponents foot infantry. If inferior to your opponent in archers, you should make the best use of your archers, either by waiting to engage their archers, or by forcing their hand by targeting targets of more value (such as their infantry).

If no archers are present in your opponents army, you should seek to adjust any inballance you have at present. If they have more cavalry, you should engage their cavalry. If more infantry, you should engage their infantry first. In this way, you preserve your strength, while equalising your weakness.

However, again, there are no set tactics for the ideal way to use your men in battle. It depends upon the army you are facing and so forth.

~John

[Alpedar]

If enemy is not charging at you and is waiting instead, you can abuse it by forming line infront of him and send few archers and yaris to side. Archers will then start attacking his flank unit. If its melee it will either stand there and get pounded, or charge (or whole army regroups) If it charge, use melee support to kill it (or lure it to rest o your archers), if it stands kill it (unless its so much armored that you are wasting arrows).

If enemy is approaching he will usualy have archers first and they will stop and shoot and melee units will pass them. Hitting them with fire arrows when another unit is going through is good idea. (AI is bad with positioning and sometimes overlaps its units, hit owerlaping units for more hits in general.) But then melee is bigger problem, so switch to unarmored melee units.

Try to cross the T. Lets say enemy is approaching with 4 archers to your 3. Move them sligtly to the side, so one of his unit will arrive first, so you will have brief 3vs1. Look what of your unit is closest to him and set it to loose formation, other put to loose too if you have enough space, but with tight formation you can concetrate more man per area -> you can gain local superriority. Once rest arrives look for overlaps and set attacked units to loose formation. Dont finish of units if there are full units nearby, more man = higher chance to hit (unless they are going to broke/surrender soon, in that case few more volleys could remove this unit without having to kill it, and it can cause chain reaction).

Sometimes you can make enemy units miss (at least partialy) by changing velocity just after they shoot. Best is if there is change of terrain slope (leading target in TW assumes unit will continue without any change, regardless whether it is possible, so if you are on top of lat hill near edge and moving towards it and by the time when projectiles arrive you will already be descending, attacker will shoot above your unit heads, works best against long air time projectiles and with fast unit formed to have smallest size in direction of movement). Use this knowladge to not waste shots (esp. fire arrows)

Artilery - If AI enemy would not normaly charge, but you have long range artilery, he will charge. When he arriwes shoot him with arrows. But then order artilery crew to drop their siege engine. Now you DON'T have long range arty, so AI will return to its waiting mindset ind will run away (usually). You can make it run across your archer range multiple times. DON't use all your arty amunition, because without ammo arty is not considered long range threat by the AI.

You can split enemy force by sending cavalry unit near on the flank and when yaris pursue, run away. This way one unit will ti up multiple. But this requires periodical attention, bacause you don't want to get caught (esp. if you used general). If using general, do it only if is better than bonuses this general can provide (eg. its 2nd general in this battle and he is low level)

All of this work with bow ashigaru. (which will form backbone of your army early where tactics matters most) With Chosa bow samurais/bow monks it works even better, but then enemy can be swamped by numbers.