Pike & Shot, Tercio and Shogun 2...

[Lord Dakier]

So I've been doing a bit of historical reading about 1495 and the Spanish-Franco war in Italy. I'm playing as the Otomo clan and of course like many I want to develop an army compromised with as many gunpowder units as possible. Now however I slice it the enemy cavalry is and will always be the main problem, but their is another different from Europe that resides in Japan; Swordsmen. Now with a 1:1 of Tercio and Spearmen I can safely take out any army similar, but this will always struggle against strong melee based infantry such as swordsmen so I'm looking for suggestions and tactical advice of what others would do. In a general Tercio formation it also uses a small number of swordsmen which I've done, but the losses we're pretty high even though I still gained overall victory. I'm trying to gain the kind of victory achieved by Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba in the Battle of Cerignola.

[hellheaven1987]

The development of pike&shot was in fact heavily tied with attritional warfare, which means heavy lost was expected and those lost could be replaced very quick (hence a "Commoner Warfare" if you want to call it, as cheap peasants could be trained quick enough and threw away quick enough).

[Lord Dakier]

So you'd recommend more so Ashigaru without worrying too much about casualties?

[hellheaven1987]

So you'd recommend more so Ashigaru without worrying too much about casualties?

I thought you mean from the historical aspect; Ashigaru did view as cannon fodder in the early phase of Sengoku and only became "tougher" after repeatly war for years, which at this time Ashigaru could be divided into professional soldiers that acted like mercenaries and traditional levy.

[Lord Dakier]

I want it to be as professional as possible really. Ashigaru definitely get slaughtered too easily against just general infantry.

The soldiers themselves I'm not too fussed about it's the formation I want to get historically accurate. I'm having a hard time fidnding out what to do with the lines in general. Tercio kept some swordsmen, question is should I be using them to charge forward instead of spearmen or look to keep shape instead?

[Gnufan]

I would suggest that you use mostly yari and matchlock ashigaru accompanied by a small elite force of samurai/monks (preferably archers). Experienced yari ashigaru with a good general may even beat katana samurai head on if they are in spearwall formation. Add some guns to that and no other melee infantry is needed. Monk archers would complement this nicely because they can stand behind your spearwall and still outrange enemy archers. If you have no archers you will get slaughtered by bow samurai.

There is also a method where you can put the matchlocks inside your spearwall. They will take casualties from the ensuing melee but if in guard mode they will shot at the troops stuck in your spearwall.

[hellheaven1987]

Na just use yari ashigaru, matchlock ashigaru and katana samuri is enough.