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| Lets Play Sengoku Jidai: Shadow of the Shogun | |
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| Topic Started: May 2 2018, 08:40 PM (333 Views) | |
| 34625197 | May 2 2018, 08:40 PM Post #1 |
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Archduke of Administration
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I recently picked up Sengoku Jidai: Shadow of the Samurai during a steam sale and I decided to do a write up on one of the campaigns. The campaign I've selected is basically the end of the Sengoku Jidai period of Japan. The initial stages to unify Japan were under Oda Nobunaga, but he was killed before he could complete his goal. Longtime ally of Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, basically took over Nobunaga's empire after his death and completed the unification of Japan. After establishing himself as shogun, Hideyoshi carried out the disastrous invasion of Korea which ended in defeat thanks to the intervention of Ming China. This war greatly weakened the power of the Toyotomi clan and hurt Hideyoshi's reputation. His enemies began to make plans to move against him. Finally Hideyoshi got sick and died leaving an heir too young to rule, and so a council of elders took control of the government. Tokugawa Ieyasu, another long time ally of Nobunaga back when he was still alive, chose this moment to strike. At this point most of clans in Japan joined up with either the Toyotomi or the Tokugawa coalitions. And this campaign is the fight between these two sides. Historically, Tokugawa won and established the Tokugawa shogunate which lasted for a few centuries. However I will be fighting against history and take the Toyotomi side. I will put all the updates within spoilers so that people don't have to load a ton of images just from reading this thread. Spoiler: click to toggle So our first image shows the strategic map. I will get this out of the way. The strategic level of the campaign is very bare bones, the real meat of the game is the tactical battles. Provinces produce a number of points every spring, and the number varies from province to province. Its not even some kind of money like you might get in total war, its literally just abstract points. Provinces which were recently the site of battles take damage and their points are reduced but they gradually recover over time, and provinces which are captured but not originally owned only give you half their point value. Provinces also have a supply limit, also measured in points. If the point value of your army exceeds the supply limit you will gradually take attrition each turn. Provinces also have a garrison separate from your main armies which may assist in defensive battle. This is also measured in points, and I don't think you actually know what units you'll be getting until the battle occurs. Originally owned provinces have a garrison of 300 points and captured provinces only get a garrison worth 150 points. And that's pretty much it for the strategic level of the game. I can talk about raising new armies next spring when I actually have some points available. I guess one other thing worth mentioning is the outline colors of the provinces. Purple is my side and green is the opposing side. Orange outline is the currently selected province, which in this case happens to be mine. Now lets get on with the game. I decide to move an army to the region of Okazaki, and the Tokugawa forces are going to put up a fight. Lets get to our first tactical battle. Just so everyone knows, my team has the red and white flags and the opponent has the white and yellow flags. So my initial deployment is to have one cavalry unit on the extreme left flank. Next to that is three units of guns, and behind them two units of bows. Next to the guns we have one sword ashigaru unit, which may be the most worthless unit in the game, just dreadful in combat. In the forest we have two spear ashigaru which are a bit better than the sword guys but not much. And we also have on unit of spear samurai which is a bit better. And finally on the extreme right flank, just outside the forest is two units of cavalry. The enemy's army seems a bit haphazard, but I think I know what happened. At the start of the battle I got a message that a unit of mine if flanking the enemy. It isn't on the map yet but it will show up in a few turns. I'm guessing the enemy is trying to rush me and win before the flanking unit can get to the fight. However, the enemy made its initial deployments without knowing where my units were, and I had the same lack of knowledge about his units. It seems like the enemy is trying to realign his units based on the fact that he now knows where mine are as well. However rushing forward and repositioning at the same time leads to something of a disorganized mess, at leas to my eye it looks disorganized. If the enemy was sitting back on the defensive I think it would be tougher to deal with. In any case, I'm in no hurry, so I just sit back and let the enemy approach for a few turns. At turn 6 my flanking unit shows up and it turns out to be an elite cavalry unit. It will be well positioned to go after that enemy spear unit that is advancing on the right flank. By turn 7 a spear unit has finally move right up to the cavalry on my right flank. I have one cavalry unit march forward and turn to face the units flank. It doesn't have the movement points to attack this turn since turning takes a lot, but it can attack next turn. However the other cavalry unit is already in the right position to charge. In the screenshot you can see the percentages for whether my cavalry will win, lose or draw if it charges. It has very good chances in the initial impact, but will do worse in the subsequent rounds of melee. This is somewhat in line with my understanding of cavalry form other strategy games, they do very well in the initial charge but suffer from prolonged melee. However, unlike most units, cavalry have a pretty good chance of withdrawing from melee if it starts to go poorly. Sometimes light infantry can withdraw as well, but they don't seem to pull it off as easily as cavalry. Medium and heavy infantry are pretty much stuck in close combat until its over as far as I know. And even for units that can withdraw, its not under your control, its based on how well the unit is doing in the fight. This is a more zoomed out screenshot after I had made all my moves. I did order the cavalry on the right to attack the spears, it got its initial damage done and then it pulled back a couple spaces. An enemy bow unit was taking potshots at my spears so i moved them out of the forest to advance forward. Meanwhile on the left, the enemy spears are now right up to my guns. You may notice that one of the enemy flags is now a D. This stands for disrupted, so I guess its time to talk about cohesion levels. Basically there are four cohesion levels. The best is steady and that's what everyone starts out as. Next is disrupted. It drops the combat ability a little bit, but i don't think its a huge difference. The main reason to be worried about disrupted is because its the first step towards routing. After disrupted is fragmented. This one reduces combat abilities a lot, and units can no longer charge, although units with ranged attacks can still fire. Fragmented units also have a reduced movement speed. And after fragmented is broken. At this stage enemy units will run away if possible, and if there is no escape route they will disperse. Sometimes enemies with are broken for several turns will still disperse even if they have a path to keep fleeing. So there are a few ways to reduce cohesion. If you get into close combat and you lose there is a chance of your cohesion dropping. I don't remember all the factors that determine the probability, but basically if you can keep winning close combat you should reduce the enemy's cohesion eventually. Secondly, flank attacks and rear attacks automatically reduce cohesion except in a few special circumstances, such as light infantry charging non light units. If you flank and then win the combat its possible to take down cohesion levels two levels but its not guaranteed, but you should get one level. And the final way to reduce cohesion is with shooting. Any shooting attack which takes out at least 5% of a unit's troops has a chance of reducing cohesion. And this is how I got a an enemy spear unit down to disrupted. My guns and bows were shooting as he approached. Things continue to develop on the left flank. The disrupted spear unit charges my guns. Despite their reduced cohesion they should still have an advantage against ranged infantry in a close combat. So I have my cavalry attack the spears, and drop them down to fragmented. Another spear unit attacks my sword unit, which drops to disrupted and retreats from close combat into the forest. You may notice in this screenshot that some of the flags are starting to get ragged looking. This is an indication that a significant number of soldiers in the unit have died. It is possible to autobreak a unit without dropping cohesion if you kill enough guys in the unit. What percentage you have to kill varies based on the experience of the soldiers, but for average troops you have to kill off half the unit. Right next to fractured enemy unit is an enemy unit at full cohesion, but has taken severe casualties from the gun and bow fire, and its actually in danger of autobreaking if it takes much more punishment. In the middle an enemy warrior monk charges one of my spear ashigaru. I have my spear samurai charge the monk feeling like it would be tough for that unit to take on two different units at once. My remaining spear ashigaru marches forward, charges the bow unit, dropping it to disrupted. The enemy bow falls back from the combat. However, it looks like an enemy gun unit and spear unit are approaching that area. On the far right my two cavalry units continue to attack and fall back against the one spear unit. And lastly, my flanking force of elite cavalry have charged and disrupted a spear unit. So what happened between this turn and the last one. Well the steady cohesion spears with the ragged flag did in fact break like I thought it would from gun and bow attacks. When a unit breaks all the adjacent units of the same team have a chance to drop in cohesion by one level. The enemy got very unlucky because all of the surrounding units dropped a level. two fully cohesive spear units dropped to disrupted and the fractured one breaks. Now when units are in close combat and the enemy breaks they may chase after it. Sometimes for a few turns before you get control of them again. Sometimes they break off the chase and charge some other enemy unit of their own initiative if they have the like their odds of winning. We see both of these things happen actually. The gun unit chases the fleeing enemy way off to the left and toward the enemy cavalry that was waiting in reserve. Meanwhile my cavalry on the left charges one of the disrupted enemy spears. In the middle, the enemy warrior monks do not care for their chances at taking on two enemy units at once and it falls back. I have my spears continue to march forward and more enemy units emerge from the marsh. On the right. My flanking force had broken the spear unit, while my other two cavalry units continue to charge and fallback against another spear unit. This is the first turn where a few things go bad, but first the good news. Concentrated from guns and bows drops one of the disrupted enemy spears down to fractured. Now the bad news is that my gun unit chasing after a routing enemy like a madman has been charged by the enemy cavalry. The unit is disrupted but will probably break very quickly against two cavalry units. However a bigger concern is in the middle. One of my spear ashigaru was charged by a more elite spear unit, and after this the enemy gun unit joined in and also charged by spear ashigaru. This combined assault was enough to break it. The enemy gun did not pursue but the enemy spear unit did and could be in a position to imperil my remaining spear units or go after my sword unit or go attack my cavalry. As expected, my gun unit on the left flank breaks and is pursued, however one of the cavalry units breaks off the pursuit to attack a bow unit. All my ranged units on that side of the battle are going to be quickly overrun by cavalry, but I don't really have much to send over there at the moment. However there is some good news. Concentrated fire breaks a fractured enemy spear unit. The spear unit that had broken through my lines in the previous turns drops to disrupted and an already disrupted spear unit drops to fractured. In the middle, my spear samurai seem to have the upper hand on the warrior monks and drop them to disrupted. However enemy gunfire drops my spear ashigaru to disrupted. I decided to have my guns charge the fractured spear infantry and break them, both the cavalry and the guns chase down broken unit to the middle of the battlefield and leave themselves exposed to enemy counter attacks. Meanwhile I still have one gun unit left on the left flank, and I have it turn and take a pot shot at enemy cavalry still pursuing a broken unit, and it drops to disrupted. On the right flank, I have that flanking cavalry still pursuing a broken unit and still not under my control. I have another cavalry unit which after repeated charges has reduced an enemy spear unit to fractured. In the middle, my spear samurai have broken the enemy warrior monks, which causes the disrupted unit standing next to it to drop to fractured. However, enemy missile fire drops my yari ashigaru to fractured. Since fractured units can't charge we have two fractured units staring each other down unable to do anything for the moment. The two units who had pursued a broken unit to the middle of the battlefield get a nasty counter attack. One enemy gun unit flank attacks my cavalry. Another enemy gun unit rear attacks my own gun unit. Both drop to fractured. On the left flank enemy cavalry charges my guns and routs another unit. However one bit of good news is that the disrupted enemy spears in the middle of the battle get flank attacked by my cavalry and immediately disperse. The sword unit that has been completely useless this whole battle gets its moment to shine and I have it charge forward on the enemy bows dropping it to disrupted. The enemy guns break my cavalry, then advance forward and charge my swords dropping them to fractured. I guess that unit is still worthless. However there is some good news. The enemy spears on the far right flank have finally been broken by my cavalry. My final act is to turn my spear samurai back in the direction of the fractured warrior monks standing by my own fractured spears. I charge and break that unit, and it is finally enough for the enemy to surrender. I believe the losing side takes additional casualties beyond what actually occurred in battle because they would be harassed as they are retreating. But anyway. It looks like we landed a decent blow against them in this battle. That's probably enough for one update. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| Bran Triune | May 2 2018, 09:01 PM Post #2 |
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Resident Wizard/Insane Alcoholic
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Ooh, those last two wars/battles of the Sengoku era have always been particularly interesting to me. The game is certainly off to a good start. AI is making some interesting decisions. Looking forward to following this! |
| You'll wind up wearing tattered shoes if you mess with Mister Booze | |
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| Fake | May 3 2018, 04:53 AM Post #3 |
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★
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looks interesting, I like the papery style of it, but your post just had far too many big pics to look at them all
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Citizen ★Fake★ ![]() Balder positions and stuff Minister of WA Affairs (Mar-Aug/2017) Lawspeaker (Mar-Apr/2017) Statsminister (Jan-Feb/2017) Minister of Integration (the past) Deputy Minister of Integration and Culture (the past) Fake-News editor (the past) x2 Forum spammer champion | |
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| ♥ Rach ♥ | May 3 2018, 08:32 AM Post #4 |
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At Least 5% Sugar
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I agree with Fake that the art work and style is really cool. It would have been cool if games like CK2 used this sort of system for battles... Keep this up! ![]() It would be cool if we had more of this sort of thing! |
![]() ♥ All You Need is Love ♥ Her Nordic Majesty NES ~ I find you so irresistible | Bestias ~ You are a goddess Salaxalans ~ RACH FOR NS QUEEN | Cpt Carrot ~ Can you get any more awesome? <3| It's always easy to be cheerful around you <3 Calvin Coolidge ~ Rach for NS Queen! \o/ Trinn ~ You're already super sexy and that can't really be outdone Helle ~ EVERYONE wants to be like you <3 | Guys wanna be with you, and girls wanna be you ![]() Praetor ~ Who needs 1500 WA nations when you have Solorni Ninn ~ hi i just wanted to say that you are a literal goddess Bran ~ Who doesn't want to be with Rach? She's fun, funny, an absolute delight and she has mountains of love to give to a cruel world. | Every inch of you is perfect <3 | |
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| 34625197 | May 3 2018, 06:25 PM Post #5 |
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Archduke of Administration
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Its great to see some interest in this so I will continue with part two of the campaign. Spoiler: click to toggle In the aftermath of the previous battle, the enemy retreats to another province. And now my victorious army can lay siege. On the right side you can see that there is a 5% chance of the city falling this turn. Larger armies will have a higher chance of capturing the city, and multiple turns of continuous sieging will also increase that number. You want to get that number as high as possible because you have a limited time to lay siege. When winter rolls around all besieging armies will withdraw to controlled provinces. I move some more armies around and I get the siege percentage up to 9%. Still not great, but its all I can really do for now. I'll end my turn and see where the enemy moves his armies. You may have noticed from the screenshots that I have one purple province disconnected from the rest, and the enemy decides that's a good target for a siege. I move my own army to try and save that province and we get our next battle. So this is our line at the start of the battle. I am immediately worried right off the bat because the unit composition is pretty shit, but I try to do the best I can with it. On the extreme right flank we have one cavalry unit. We also have two naginata armed warrior monk units, which are sort of easy to spot because they are lighter than the other units. One is on next to the cavalry, and the other is on the opposite side on the left flank. We have one unit of spear samurai, which is on the back row at the point where it overlaps with the front row. Every other unit is spear ashigaru. Spear ashigaru is not really that great of a unit, and the fact that they make up half my army is not encouraging. We also have no ranged units of any kind and very limited cavalry. I'm in no hurry to engage the enemy again, while we're waiting for them to approach we do get one unit of reinforcements to join the battle. Its another unit of cavalry, and do to the location it stepped on to the map, the easiest way to bring it into our battle line is to have it stand on the right flank next to the other cavalry unit. Some enemy units are getting close to our lines now. On the left there is a unit of spear samurai, which has me very concerned. It should be able to beat my ashigaru and probably my warrior monks as well, but maybe not both at the same time. But then again samurai are pretty bad ass so it may even be able to deal with multiple inferior units at a time. So I have my own samurai turn and head to the left. There is an enemy gun approaching the middle. I don't want to charge forward because the enemy will get a free potshot if I enter its firing range, and then get another shot on the enemy turn. There is no real point in charging guns unless you can reach it in a single turn. They will still get a free shot but at least you can deliver your own attack as well. I have a couple units outside the gun's arc of fire cautiously step forward but everyone else holds position for now. On the left, the enemy samurai is getting in position to charge my ashigaru but doesn't have enough movement to carry the attack out this turn. I move my monks forward ready to assist in that combat, and I also try to maneuver a spear ashigaru on the samurai's flank. In the middle, a gun unit has turned to face one of my ashigaru. I move my monks forward. They get shot by another enemy gun unit in the area, which I knew could happen, but I thought taking a shot would not be so bad since I could potentially get a flank attack on those guns next turn. However I have very bad luck and a single volley of musket fire drops the monks to disrupted. On on the far right flank I have my cavalry attacking and withdrawing on a unit of spear ashigaru, much like we saw in the previous battle. One cavalry unit has already attacked while the other has moved into position for a flank attack. On the left side, the enemy samurai have engaged my ashigaru, but the rough terrain of that square makes it somewhat defensible. Their samurai are not going to kill me too quickly. And I have another ashigaru turn to face the samurai's flank, and they will be able to attack next turn. I think I've got this samurai under control with my flank attack next turn, so I don't need my monks to help there. Instead I send my monks after an enemy bow unit approaching on the left. My spear samurai hasn't been a position to do much yet, but I have it advance forward, mostly because I see an enemy cavalry near the middle and the samurai can provide assistance if it decides to charge someone. Meanwhile I have two ashigaru units charge the enemy guns. We should have the upper hand in the long run but so far not much progress has been made against them. However the other gun unit continues to lay down fire on my monks and drops them to fragmented. On the right my cavalry attacks have dropped the ashigaru to disrupted, and now that they really have the upper hand they will stay in close combat instead of withdrawing. However this could be a problem, because the enemy has its own cavalry moving toward my right and will be in a position to do some serious damage. So on the left side I have routed the enemy spear samurai. The flank attack was enough to get the upper hand. My ashigaru will rush off in pursuit but I should get control of them again soon. My monks have engaged the enemy bow unit. In the middle my spears have dropped an enemy gun unit to fractured and it withdraws from the close combat. However one of my spear units dropped to disrupted before that combat ended. And the other gun unit has broken my monks with gun fire. On the right, my cavalry has dropped the enemy spears to fractured, but the enemy cavalry gets a flank attack dropping one of my cavalry units to disrupted. So after a couple turns this is the situation. On the left my monks got thrashed by the enemy bow unit and drop to fractured, and withdraw from combat. I believe that was a bow samurai rather than a bow ashigaru so its kind of a sturdy unit, but still very disappointing that the monks couldn't do better in close combat against a bow unit. Both monk units have performed very poorly in this battle. And speaking of the other monk unit, you may notice that the routing monk unit which ran across the battlefield is now at an F again. So all units which are not at full cohesion have a chance to rally and go up one step. I don't know all the factors that go into it, but I do know that routing enemies still being pursued will not rally, and units are less likely to rally if the general is dead. So by random chance one of my routing units is now fractured. I now have two fractured monk units which are basically useless. The slightest attack could break them, and they can't even charge while fractured so its not like I could make some daring attempt at a flank attack. So I have both units march toward the edge of the map and we never see them again for the rest of the battle. On the left side of the battle I have one spear ashigaru charge the bow unit to try and keep it fixed in place while my other spear unit goes around for a flank attack. I try to recreate my success in taking down the spear samurai earlier. In the middle I have a disrupted spear unit staring down the enemy cavalry. I can't attack because I'd be at a huge disadvantage and I can't have him run away without being exposed to flank or rear attacks. So he's going to stay put for now. I have my other spear unit turn to attack the guns that had driven off my monks earlier. And I have my spear samurai engage an enemy sword ashigaru. On the right the enemy spears had broken, but one of my cavalry units broke as well. So now my remaining cavalry unit is engaged in close combat with the enemy cavalry. That engagement is going to be a nail biter and won't be resolved for some time. So a couple turns later we have some new developments. On the left my spears gained the upper hand on the enemy bow unit. It pulled back from combat but I send one spear unit to keep continue close combat engagements and finish it off. I have my other spear unit turn and head toward the middle of the battle because it will probably be needed there due to other developments. The spear unit that was disordered in the previous image has been broken by enemy cavalry who are now in position to do some serious damage to my remaining troops. My spear samurai fracture the enemy swords, which is no surprise because they are a garbage unit, and the swords pull back from close combat. The enemy gun pulls back from close combat with my spear unit and lays down fire. An enemy bow shows up to lay down more fire. My spear unit drops to disrupted and is starting to look ragged. And on the far right the two cavalry units continue to fight with neither side having a clear upper hand. With the enemy bow on the left finally crushed I have both of my spear units from that side heading toward the center. Concentrated fire from guns and bows causes my disrupted spear unit to break, and the nearby samurai unit drops to disrupted as a result. I have my samurai charge the fractured guns and finally break that unit, however that unit is going to be very vulnerable. And on the right the cavalry battle continues to rage. The enemy cavalry drops to disrupted but both flags are becoming ragged from the men that have been killed. Both units are getting close to autobreaking from casualties. Going ahead a few turns now, my samurai manage to break the fractured sword unit, but heavy fire from guns and bows causes it to break as well. I've got one spear unit moving into position to attack the enemy bow, and another spear unit moving across the middle, but I made a huge blunder in the movement and positioning of that unit and its about to get flanked by enemy cavalry. And on the right the cavalry battle continues. Finally we run out of time and the battle ends. We are forced to retreat. If we had not run out of time we certainly would have lost anyway. In the final turn his cavalry did break my spears, and my other spear unit had the upper hand against the bows in close combat but broke from casualties. My cavalry did win the fight on the right, but just barely and it was on the verge of autobreaking from casualties as well. So at this point we didn't really have much of a force left to continue the fight. I'm not entirely sure but I think the casualties are not so bad because we lost on time instead of being completely routed. If you compare these causalities with the previous battle, they took a much larger beating. In any case, this is not the biggest disaster that could have happened. I would have liked to have defended that province but its not the end of the world. After the battle my army withdraws to a random enemy province since there are no friendly ones bordering the site of that battle. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 4 2018, 06:31 PM Post #6 |
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Archduke of Administration
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In this next update we have the biggest battle yet. In fact its so big I've decided to break it up into two parts, so this will be the beginning of the battle. Spoiler: click to toggle The Tokugawa decide that he doesn't much care for me laying siege to his province and combines two smaller armies together into a big one, which launches an attack. We are outnumbered but our army is dug in with defensive positions, we'll see what that means in the next image. So far, for this lets play I've been using the other camera angle, but I believe the fortified positions show up a bit better from this angle, so I'll use this just to show you the initial deployment. Those defensive positions i believe are supposed to represent short wooden fences which can be shot over by the people inside them but they are not heavy duty stone walls, that's for sure. They seem to provide some cover from enemy fire but far more significant is a massive bonus resisting enemy charges. Although I do get to place my units where I want within a certain area, the defensive positions are predetermined and not under my control, so I will be setting up my lines to make use of them. On the far right I have two cavalry units, one behind the other. I have a gun unit in the defensive position and a bow unit right behind. Next to the bows are two units of spear samurai. One step diagonally forward is a unit of spear ashigaru. Next to that inside a defensive position is a sword ashigaru. Next to that we have two guns, also behind defenses. I have an artillery piece way out in the front at our forward defensive position. Next to the guns we have three bow units, two are at the defensive positions and one behind them. Next to the bows we have a spear ashigaru, sword ashigaru and another spear ashigaru. And in front of the spears and swords we have four cavalry units. In hindsight putting cavalry that far forward may not have been wise in a defensive battle. I didn't want to put them in a forest because cavalry are at a massive disadvantage there, but perhaps putting to two forward cavalry units in front of the bows might have been a better idea. But what's done is done. The first enemy to approach our lines is an enemy cavalry unit. Our gun and bow fire drop him down to fragmented just before he can attack, so that's a pretty good start. Unsurprisingly we quickly break the fragmented cavalry unit, but more units are coming to attack. Two cavalry units show up on the far right to face down our cavalry, and another cavalry unit approaches our spear samurai. And in the middle, enemy artillery and gun samurai are exchanging fire with our artillery. Despite its defenses it has dropped to disrupted. On the left side I decide to have my cavalry charge an approaching gun unit. Its is perhaps not too wise to charge forward and attack in what is supposed to be a defensive battle, but I'm not one to just sit around and take gun fire. And if you are going to attack, better to commit to it and not half ass it, so I move my other cavalry units and nearby infantry units forward as well to prepare for the enemy's counter attack. On the right, one of my cavalry units got the advantage over an enemy cavalry unit, and dropped it to disrupted. It pulled back from the fight. After that I had both of my cavalry units gang up against one enemy cavalry unit on the the right that is still doing well in combat. Meanwhile my spear samurai are at an impasse with another cavalry unit. Our estimated chances of success if we charge them are very low. Meanwhile the cavalry can't charge either of my samurai without exposing its flank to the other, so for now its faces diagonally in between them to prevent a flank attack. And in the middle our artillery has fallen, and it looks like we've got quite a few enemy units approaching now. On the left, my cavalry has already broken the enemy guns and chases off in pursuit. Meanwhile I continue to cautiously move my cavalry and infantry forward. Some units are already engaged in close combat while others are still moving into position. On the right the enemy cavalry near my spear samurai has inexplicably turned to face my bows, exposing its rear to one of the samurai. Now I can imagine a possible explanation for this. The enemy has a huge line of troops getting very close now. By rear attacking that cavalry, my samurai will be locked into close combat at least for awhile, leaving its own flank exposed. However if we break the unit fast enough, the enemy won't get a chance to take advantage of that. Indeed, the enemy cavalry has already fallen to fragmented, and I'd say it was a bad risk for the enemy to take. Other than that not much is going on here except for all the enemies that are inching closer. One the left side, a lot of things are happening. One of my cavalry units was broken by an enemy cavalry unit, who is pursuing it into the forest. I have my bows turn and get potshots on it. When my cav unit broke it caused two nearby units to drop to disrupted as a result. On of my cav units withdrew into the forest after an attack on the enemy spears, but that is not great terrain for it to be in. I have my disrupted sword unit turn to face the flank of that spear unit. My cavalry unit which was pursuing the broken guns advances one more step and then stops face to face with enemy cavalry. There is an enemy spear unit which is dangerously close to making a flank attack on my cav so I maneuver a spear unit of my own on its flank to try and discourage an attack. My last cav unit, which is disrupted due to a friendly unit breaking, is actually having some great success so far. It broke an enemy sword unit, chased it a bit, then broke off the pursuit to take a flank attack on a bow unit which is now fragmented. And I have one other spear unit in the area which is engaged with enemy spears, neither side has the upper hand yet. On the right, my samurai break the fractured cav unit which immediately disperses, boxed in by the approaching line of it own team. And my two cavalry break the one cavalry unit they had ganged up on. However, one bit of bad news is that a disrupted enemy cav rallies back up to normal state and is jumping back into the fight. An enemy spear unit has also charged my guns, and it looks like another one is positioning itself to charge next turn. In open ground this would wreck my guns fairly quickly, but with those defensive fences they actually should be okay for awhile. On the left, my disrupted cavalry breaks an enemy bow unit, chases for a bit breaks off the pursuit to attack an enemy monk unit, doesn't get a clear upper hand, and falls back. There's still that one enemy cavalry unit chasing my broken cavalry unit into the forest. I continue to lay down fire with bows, but so far its not doing a whole lot. When that cavalry unit decides to break off its pursuit its going to be in a position to do a lot of damage. I had one of my cavalry units charge the enemy spears near the edge of the forest, hoping to lock it into close combat, and let my disrupted swords flank attack it. But the cav pulled back from the combat deeper into the forest, and spear unit turned diagonally to prevent the cavalry or the swords from getting a flank attack. We've also got a pair of spear units and a pair of cav units staring each other down, nobody willing to attack yet due to very even odds that would make combat a big risk. We do have one other spear unit in the area, which was already engaged to enemy spears. The fight is still very even, but a second enemy spear unit is approaching which could be big trouble. And an enemy monk unit has blundered into my guns who were hidden in the forest, and took a face full of lead. No cohesion drop yet, but did take some decent casualties. On the far right a battered enemy cavalry unit withdraws from the fight against my cavalry. One spear unit attempted to assault the fortified gun position, but withdrew because the fight was going poorly. Another spear unit remains engaged with guns. we also got one unengaged spear unit to drop to disrupted from bow fire. And you may also notice a routing monk unit. This was the one i mentioned in the last turn on the left side of the battle that blundered into my guns in the forest. It broke very quickly from concentrated gun fire. On the left, I am concerned about my cavalry in the forest, since it is at risk of being rear attacked by the enemy cavalry. If it turn to face that unit it could be rear attacked by the enemy spears, so I decide the best course of action is to advance forward out of the forest, and maybe turn around later. There is still a pair of cavalry units staring each other down, both sides unwilling to engage for now, next to that, there are two spear units that have now finally engaged. My disrupted cavalry has rallied to normal status and the monk unit has charged it. I also have another spear unit which has been engaged for a couple turns, and it has now dropped to disrupted. Another enemy spear has now turned to face it, and will probably attack soon. The enemy maneuvers his battered cavalry behind mine and is getting in a position to potentially get flank or rear attacks on a number of different units. I turn my bows to attack and drop his cavalry back down to disrupted. An enemy spear is is approaching my cavalry from the front but I am reluctant to attack because of the poor odds. However a stand off may work to my disadvantage, as an enemy bow drops my cavalry down to disrupted. My guns are still in close combat with enemy spears and although they have done well so far, the combat is taking its toll. The guns drop to disrupted and are suffering heavy casualties. Next to that my spear samurai are both engaged with enemy spears. And an enemy gun unit wanders into my forest and gets hit by spear ashigaru and from the flank by sword ashigaru My spear unit that was engaged on the far left drops to disordered and falls back. I move my cavalry into the exact position that my spear unit used to be and stare down the enemy spears. My spear unit which had just withdrawn from combat turns rear attacks a different unit of enemy spears standing at the edge of the forest, and drop it to disrupted. My disordered swords rally to normal and turn to face the enemy cavalry which is now approaching it. The two cavalry units which had been staring each other down for the longest time are now engaged and my other cavalry unit is still fighting monks, without a clear winner yet. And my disordered spear unit was attacked by a second enemy spear, drops to fragmented and withdraws from combat, but it is a sitting duck now. I manage to break the disrupted enemy cavalry with arrow fire, however my disrupted cavalry drops to fragmented from enemy arrow fire. Not sure what to do with it, I have it turn and walk away from the battle. I have my other cavalry charge the enemy spears and drop it to disrupted. My guns have rallied back up to normal cohesion but the casualties are mounting and that unit won't last much longer regardless of cohesion. The enemy guns in my forest break causing enemy spears and enemy gun samurai to drop to disrupted. My sword ashigaru march forward in pursuit of the breaking unit. One of my spear samurai has dropped to disrupted from the prolonged combat with enemy spears. On the edge of the forest, my disrupted spears continue to engage the enemy disrupted spears, but mine lose the round of combat and drop to fragmented. Near that same area I have a cavalry unit charging and withdrawing against enemy spears. Not accomplishing much so far but at least keeping the unit busy for now. I still have one cavalry unit locked in combat with enemy cavalry, no clear winner yet. And another cavalry unit fighting indecisively against a monk unit. Enemy cavalry has now engaged my swords and should win because its a garbage unit, but in any case the enemy will have reinforcements if he needs them. Enemy spears have broken my fragmented spears and it looks like one unit is positioning itself to rear attack my cavalry. Things are actually turning out poorly on the left. A few things have happened. My fragmented cavalry on the right have rallied to disrupted, so they are at last capable of charging again. I turn them to face the flank of enemy spears. Meanwhile, my cavalry already engaged to those spears drops to disrupted. After a prolonged melee, my guns finally break from causalities, the enemy spears march forward into the defensive position, charge my bows, drop the bows to disrupted, and the bows withdraw from combat. Next to that I have a spear samurai engaged to enemy spears, and both sides have dropped to fragmented. My other spear samurai have had much better luck, breaking the enemy spears, following them, breaking off pursuit to flank attack a random enemy gun unit crossing the battle field, breaking them as well, and now pursuing the routing guns. I move my spear ashigaru into the gap so it can maybe get a flank attack on the fragmented spears and break them before my fragmented samurai break, if I'm lucky. An enemy monk unit moves to the edge of the forest. I advance one of my gun units out of its defenses to take a shot. Normally they could shoot from further away, but the trees block the lie of sight so I have to be right next to him. The monks drop to disrupted. My swords are showing poor odds in a fight against the monks directly in front of them so they will stay put and do nothing for now. Near the edge of the forest, my fractured spears break, so I turn my cavalry to charge the disrupted enemy spears. The enemy cavalry breaks my swords because its a garbage unit and is in pursuit for now. I've got one unit of cavalry still engaged with the monks and they've taken heavy casualties, but have dropped the monks to fragmented. They actually have a chance at winning, but they better do it quick, because other units in the area are going to be in a position to rear attack pretty soon. I have one other cavalry unit in the area still engaged to enemy cavalry. If the other enemy cavalry breaks off its pursuit of my swords it can rear attack my cavalry next turn. Even if it continues the pursuit the enemy has other units that can deliver a rear attack. Since this is already pretty long we'll continue this in the next update. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 6 2018, 12:47 PM Post #7 |
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Its time for the conclusion to the battle I started in the previous update. Spoiler: click to toggle My flanking maneuver works and I am able to break a fragmented spear unit with my spear ashigaru, which also causes a nearby spear unit to drop to disrupted. My spear ashigaru and fragmented spear samurai chase the broken unit across the battle. Although I managed to keep that samurai unit alive for now, it is going to be very vulnerable in its current state. On of my disrupted cavalry units on the right has broken, but the other one rallies up to normal state, and charges enemy spears from the side. More towards the center, a broken enemy gun unit rallies up to fragmented. Like all fragmented units its very vulnerable but it can still shoot, so it could potentially do some damage if it maneuvers into the right position. Enemy monks charge my guns and force them to fall back a step. And I've got a unit of spear samurai, which had previously been chasing a routing unit across the battle field now turn and head toward the center to help out there. So when the last update ended, it looked like my cavalry was about to get rear charged by enemy cavalry, and that doesn't seem to have changed. So what happened? Well it seems like when a unit pursuing a broken unit breaks off the pursuit it will spend one turn completely immobile doing nothing. That cav not only is unable to attack for a turn, but stopped at the exact spot to block an other units from getting a rear charge. So due to a quirk in the pursuit system i get a one turn reprieve. However my cavalry will get rear charged next turn. I still have on cavalry unit engaged to enemy cav and another engaged to fragmented monks, neither of those fights has progressed much. However, my third remaining cav unit on this side is actually having some success. It broke a disrupted enemy spear unit and then charged another spear unit from the rear dropping it to disrupted. This is some good news in an area of the battle that has gone kind of poorly so far. So a few things are going on here. Enemy bows turn to face my fragmented samurai and break them with a volley of arrows. Enemy spears and gun samurai are turning toward my spear ashigaru, who is going to be in a tough situation soon. Meanwhile my cavalry are still engaging enemy spears, and i have my bows taking potshots, but without much effect so far. In the center, fragmented enemy guns rally again up to disrupted. Now that's really annoying, when a broken enemy unit rallies twice in a row. I've got my spear samurai moving to threaten the enemy guns. The disrupted enemy monks charge my sword ashigaru. Now I've gone on and on about swords being a garbage unit, and I'm right, but this is their moment to shine. The protection of the forest is going to weaken the enemy attack. They are still slightly disadvantaged, so they would probably lose over a long period of time, but they should hold out for a very long time. So as expected, my cavalry unit gets rear flanked and breaks. However there is a silver lining to this. Two enemy cavalry units are now chasing it to the edge of the map. They will spend a few turns in pursuit before they can turn around and spend a few more turns heading back to the battle. The turn limit is going to prevent them from actually reaching the battle. Kind of sucks that they broke my unit, but it is nice that they are no longer relevant as an actual threat. And the better news is that my cavalry broke an enemy spear unit and chased it to the middle of the battle field. this was actually visible in the previous screenshot, but I decided to mention it here on the recap of the left because that is where the combat occurred. And my other cavalry finally breaks the disrupted monks. Although things were going less than ideal on the left, it seems like there's not too much danger here any more. I still have a few units basically at full strength holding very defensible positions, and I don't think the enemy forces over here are going to be able to break through. It seems like things might be going worse on the right now. So on the very far right, a broken enemy spear unit has rallied to fragmented and is marching back to the fight. I am getting sick of the enemy guns shooting my spear ashigaru so i charge the enemy bow unit. While in close combat it can no longer be shot at, I guess to prevent friendly fire that would occur from shooting into a chaotic melee. And since the disrupted enemy spears have abandoned the defensive position, I have my bows move forward and grab it. So the number of turns units will pursue broken units seems to be a bit random. One of my cav units has already broken off its pursuit and I send it to face another unit of enemy spears. However the other cav unit is still pursuing the monks, even though both units started chasing on the same turn. On the far let, my bows have dropped the enemy bows to disrupted. Amazingly the disrupted enemy gun unit rallies again to normal state. This is unbelievable. A broken unit rallies back up to normal in just a few turns. What bad luck for me and good luck for the enemy. I move my guns forward so they can engage it in a shooting match. With two units against one and the cover of the forest for my guys, you'd think we would have an advantage here. Meanwhile the other enemy gun unit has dropped my spear samurai to disrupted. I haven't charged, probably because the tooltips were showing the attack to be disadvantageous. Normally spear samurai should easily have an advantage in close combat against gun ashigaru, but the disrupted state would weaken its combat abilities somewhat, and that gun unit is in somewhat rough terrain, which would weaken my attack further. I was probably not willing to make an attack with severely bad odds, thinking i could stay alive longer just eating the bullets. One benefit of keeping my samurai alive longer, is that it prevents the guns from turning to join in the shooting match, and I hope my guns can beat a lone gun unit before turning to this one. I'm going to skip the right for this turn since nothing much has changed, the combats in progress are still pretty even. But on this side of the battle, things are still happening. I have one cavalry unit charging falling back on that spear unit, and I've got a bow unit pelting that spear unit as well to try and break it faster. My other two bows continue to exchange fire with the enemy bows. My other cavalry has finally broken off its pursuit of the monks and are now ready to kill the enemy artillery. Notice I haven't talked much about the artillery's effect on the battle. That's because it hasn't really had much of one. Artillery tend to be near useless, seemingly getting 0 kills on about half the shots, but occasionally you get luck and deal some serious damage. Because of how terrible it is most of the time I made no effort to defend mine, and the enemy's longer surviving artillery hasn't done much. The shooting match between the guns hasn't gone quite as well as I'd hoped considering our advantage. We have dropped the enemy guns down to disrupted but he also dropped one of mine to disrupted. And the worse news is that the other enemy gun unit has dropped my samurai down to fractured. If I made a mistake in not charging the guns with my samurai, its too late now to do anything about it. The unit is a sitting duck. Well the enemy units are rallying like you wouldn't believe in this battle. I mentioned before about a broken enemy spear unit rallying to fragmented and approaching from the right. It has now rallied again to disrupted and is in position to flank my cavalry. More bad news is that my spear ashigaru lost the enemy bows and have broken. I still have my bows in a defensive position, and the disrupted enemy spears turn to face them. They will not attack because they would be at a disadvantage due to the defenses, but they can't turn and get away without exposing a flank or rear attack. So they sit there and take a face full of arrows. I hope my bows can break them, but they are still holding together for now. I have one cavalry unit wipe out the enemy artillery. Its not a super useful unit but might as well take it out while I'm in the area. My other cavalry has dropped the enemy spears to disrupted, and is now staying in close combat instead of retreating. The shooting match has finally gone our way. We break the disrupted enemy guns again. This time they break from casualties and not cohesion drop, but at least they are gone. The other enemy gun unit breaks my samurai, however they rally back up to fragmented pretty much immediately, although in this state they are pretty useless. Meanwhile, it looks like the enemy has another gun unit headed for the forest. Also that brave sword unit on the corner of the forest has held out longer than most units of his type, but has finally dropped to disrupted. On the right my cavalry has broken thanks to a flank attack. However I have broken a disrupted spear unit with arrow fire from my bows. And it looks like an enemy bow unit in the area isn't interested in taking on my bow, so he heads toward the center. I have no idea how the shooting match between mine and the enemy guns is going so badly when we have the cover of forest. Both of my guns are now fragmented, and the enemy guns are still normal. However there is some good news. My bows have broken the enemy bows on the left and now turn to take shots at one of the enemy gun units. My cavalry has broken the enemy spears and my other cavalry is threatening a flank attack on an enemy gun unit. And my sword unit has rallied back to normal, so it may hold out for awhile longer yet. In the last couple of turns the enemy spears on the right charge my bows, but thanks to the fortified position they are able to hold out. I believe the swords finally did break and so did one of the fragmented gun units, but its not quite enough for the enemy to get a victory. They run out of time and are forced to withdraw. Well it was a rough battle, but we held out against superior forces. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 7 2018, 06:15 PM Post #8 |
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Archduke of Administration
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In this update we have another dug in defensive battle, but its not nearly as intense as the last one. Spoiler: click to toggle Over the next couple of turns I move my small battered army from the battle I lost a few updates ago, and combine it with the large army laying siege in Okazaki, to hopefully increase my chances of taking the province. The enemy decides to take another crack at dislodging my army. They still have superior numbers, but the disparity is not nearly as great as the previous battle, and once again we will be dug in at fortified defenses. On the far right I have two units of cavalry, one behind the other. Next to that I've got three units of bows, two at defensive positions and one behind them. Next to the bows is a unit of spear samurai. Next to that is four units of cavalry, two in front and two in the back. Normally I would tend to place my cavalry on the flanks, but since the far left is forested, I put my cavalry in the center on open ground where they might be more effective. Next to the cavalry I have two units of guns at defensive positions, and a bow unit behind them. I have a sword ashigaru unit in a defensive position and in the forest, so that crappy unit should be in a very defensible position. Next to the swords is one unit of spear samurai. And the far left flank is two spear ashigaru. The first enemy unit to reach us is a unit is gun samurai. They open fire on my swords, but don't do much damage thanks to the great cover of that location. I turn one of my gun units to fire, and drop the enemy guns to disrupted. An enemy spear unit is approaching the center. I bring him down to disruped with shots from one of my guns, and then charge with cavalry to drop him to fragmented. My other gun unit is trading fire with enemy gun samurai. To the left of that, I have my spear samurai charge enemy gun ashigaru. They drop to disrupted from gun shots as they were marching forward, but should have the upper hand now that they are in close combat. And to the left of that, an enemy bow samurai unit is marching into the forest. My spear ashigaru are actually disadvantaged if they charge, but I try to maneuver one of them onto the flank of that unit. On the right I have one of my cavalry units charge forward to keep an enemy cavalry unit fixed in place, while my other cavalry unit maneuvers to get a flank attack. I've got all my bows and one gun unit laying down fire on an enemy spear samurai unit. It is still at full cohesion, but the guys in the unit are getting wiped out, and almost half of them are already dead. One of cav units breaks a fragmented enemy spear unit, and chases it across the battlefield and then breaks off the attack to charge enemy cavalry. And my sword units get charged by enemy gun cavalry but I actually win the engagement due to the incredible defenses of that position, forcing the enemy to withdraw and fall back a space. I have my swords march forward and assist my spear samurai in its close combat engagement. On the right, one of my cavalry units drops to disrupted from its close combat with enemy cav, but my flanking attacking with my other cav unit breaks the enemy cav. I manage to autobreak enemy spear samurai with bow fire. An enemy monk unit approaches and gets dropped to disrupted by gun fire then gets charged by cavalry and drops to fragmented. And because so many of my cavalry units have moved forward, I decide to move the rest forward as well as my spear samurai, to form a continuous line without any gaps. On the left side, my spear ashigaru are forced to fall back after close combat with enemy bow samurai, and one of them has even dropped to fragmented. Other than that not a lot has changed over here except there are a bunch of enemy units crowding into this side of the battle. The enemy monks that were fractured in the previous turn break. On the far right I've a couple of my cavalry units have advanced across the river to pursue a withdrawing enemy cavalry unit. I also move my bows out of the defenses on the right, since it seems like they are in no danger. They advance forward to get some shots at enemy units. On the left, my fragmented spear ashigaru rallies to disrupted, but the bad news is that my other spear ashigaru drops to fragmented from enemy gun fire. Meanwhile my spear samurai and sword ashigaru are still in close combat with enemy guns. The cover of the forest will slow down that engagement considerably, but we have finally dropped the enemy guns to disrupted. My cavalry unit directly in front of my guns has dropped to disrupted. I believe it was a luck bow attack by the enemy that did it. Meanwhile I've dropped an enemy gun unit to fragmented with a cavalry charge. I'm also maneuvering units into position for flank attacks on two different enemy cavalry units. On the far left, both of my spear ashigaru break, which is not great. However, the combined attack of my spear samurai and sword ashigaru finally breaks an enemy gun unit. My swords boldly charge forward and turn to attack another enemy gun unit. The breaking gun unit causes an enemy sword unit in the area to drop to disrupted. My flank attacks are working, and I get one enemy cav down to disrupted and another down to fragmented. Fragmented enemy guns are broken by my cavalry and enemy bows in the area are getting pelted by gun and bow fire. I have my cavalry charge the disrupted enemy swords, and since it is a garbage unit, it breaks. This causes a nearby enemy spear unit to drop to disrupted. My cavalry drop their pursuit of the swords to attack an enemy cav unit and drop it to disrupted. Other than that not a whole lot is changing on the left. In the next round of close combat resolution, some of the disrupted and fragmented enemy units break and this is enough to force a retreat. The enemy got a tiny bit of success on the left and broke my spear ashigaru, but they were losing everywhere else. In the right and the center, the enemy lines were pretty much collapsing at this point. Another punishing blow is dealt to the enemy. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 8 2018, 06:12 PM Post #9 |
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Archduke of Administration
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In this next battle we actually rush forward on the attack instead of sitting back on the defense. Spoiler: click to toggle Winter finally rolls in and all the besieging armies are forced to go home. Neither side managed to capture the province they were besieging. When spring comes, I uses the funds to build up some new armies, as does the enemy. I combine some of my armies together into a big stack and move to Ueda. The enemy army there retreats to another province rather than put up a fight. An interesting thing about this game is that harder difficulties do not give any economic bonuses like you might get in total war so that they can build massive doom stacks every turn, nor does it give morale bonuses like total war so that crap tier units can hold their ground against elite veterans. The only thing difficulty levels effect in the campaign is the initial balance of forces, and what level of disparity between armies will cause an army to retreat rather than put up a fight. At this difficulty level I will probably be outnumbered in every fight, and the enemy will not fight when I have a higher point value. Although I'm not entirely sure. On its next turn, the enemy decides to take another crack at taking Kasugayama. I hope the new army I recruited would be enough to hold the province, but as usual we will be outnumbered, so its going to be rough. I start the battle with my army arranged like this. I think by now, if you've been reading the previous posts, you should be able to differentiate most of the units apart, and recognize which units are spears, bows, cavalry monks, etc. The only ones that might be tough to distinguish are spear ashigaru and spear samurai, so I have my mouse hovering over the one spear samurai unit. I get a message that the enemy is not yet at full strength and reinforcements will come later. So unlike the previous battles so far in this campaign, I rush forward instead of waiting for the enemy to come to me, hoping I can deal a serious blow to the enemy before reinforcements show up. The enemy waits at it starting location for a few turns and only marches forward when I have almost reached him. At this point there's only been minor engagements. Gun and bow units have exchanged fire, but no close combat yet. I have dropped one his guns to disrupted. One of my spear units near the center has been dropped to disrupted by gun fire but he charges the enemy guns and breaks them, then keeps charging forward and attacks enemy bows, dropping them to disrupted. My monks have been charged by enemy cavalry and dropped to disrupted, however I am maneuvering some units into position for flank attacks. This turn is where the disaster really begins. My monks and a spear unit break, and the two units i was moving into position for a flank attack get charged. My gun unit breaks, and an enemy spear unit charges a bow unit dropping it to disrupted. At this point my right is in a dire situation. By the next turn, my disrupted bow unit has broken as well. On the left side there is a bit of good news. I successfully pulled off a flank attack against enemy spears and dropped them down to fragmented. However my disrupted spear unit that had charge enemy bows a few turns ago has broken. There are several other close combat engagements on this side that are still fairly indecisive for now. On the right, one of my spear units drops to disrupted and pulls back from close combat. The other still remains in an indecisive battle. Enemy cavalry and spears are headed toward my isolated bow unit. There is no way it can escape cavalry so the only thing to do is face the cavalry and fire off as many arrows as possible before getting charge. My bows do manage to inflict a lot of casualties to the cav and drop it to disrupted. Things are going a bit better on the left and the center than they are on the right. I've broken two enemy spears on the left. My sword unit dropped to disrupted during the fight but is chasing down a fleeing enemy spears. And there are two of my cavalry units engaged to two enemy cav units. More toward the middle, I've broken two enemy bows, and dropped another enemy bow unit to fragmented, but my own spear unit in the area has also dropped to fragmented. Near the edge of the map is an enemy gun unit, the first of the enemy reinforcements to show up, but more are about to arrive. Going ahead a couple of turns now. On the right one of my spear units breaks, as does my bow unit. All that's left of my right is one disrupted spear unit. In the center, enemy spears break my guns, however my spear samurai break enemy bows. I am now trying to position my spear samurai to attack his spears. On the left, the cavalry engagement drags on, and I also have a spear unit engaging disrupted enemy spears. You may also notice that the disrupted sword are still chasing the breaking spear unit. They are about to run into enemy reinforcements, and the swords will not last long in that situation, believe me. My final spear unit on the right finally breaks. One of my routing bow units does rally up to fragmented. I have it moving back to the battle thinking maybe a lucky shot could help, but the movement speed of fragmented units is greatly diminished, so it really won't be able to do much. In the cavalry fight on the left, I manage to break an enemy cavalry unit, and one of mine chases off after it. However I still have another cav unit engaged to enemy cav, and it is ragged from all the casualties, while the enemy unit is close to full strength. And unsurprisingly my enemy swords are broken. They did manage to drop enemy guns to disrupted in close combat, but are eventually routed. And in the center, my spear samurai are engaged in a fairly even fight with enemy spears. In the next combat resolution phase, my cavalry break from casualties, and this is enough to give the enemy a victory. Overall this battle was a disaster. Because it was a defensive battle I could have won if time ran out, but I really wanted to defeat the enemy before reinforcements showed up. Its hard to say if I could have won if I played defensively, but there's a decent chance I could have. it would have taken about half the battle for reinforcements to even show up on the map, and a few more turns for the enemy army to then march over to my position. But we'll never know how that played out, we will have to live with this defeat. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 9 2018, 06:05 PM Post #10 |
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Archduke of Administration
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In this update, we actually fight with a superior army to the enemy, for once. Spoiler: click to toggle In the previous update we suffered a stinging defeat, but I do get a consolation prize. The army laying siege in Ueda finally captures it for my side. Although we are losing thousands of men per turn in attrition by having a doomstack in that province. Winter rolls in again, and the Tokugawa are forced to break off their sieges of my provinces. I get very lucky they were not able to take any. When spring comes, the points are first automatically spent replenishing my attrition withered army in Ueda, and then I use the remainder to recruit a couple small armies. Of course that doomstack in Ueda will continue to suffer attrition like crazy. But if I split up my forces, I will be very vulnerable to enemy attacks. The best thing to do is force an engagement with the enemy's largest army, and deal enough damage so it will not be able to threaten my smaller armies. If I send my largest army, the enemy will just run away, so I carefully divide my army at Ueda to be roughly the same point value as the enemy army. In order to give myself a better chance in the fight, I leave behind my crap tier units like sword ashigaru and spear ashigaru. All my spear units in my attacking force will be samurai. I also bring a ton of cavalry as well as guns and bows. Of course this is dangerous because the units I leave behind will be very vulnerable if the enemy decides to attack. My plan is working so far. My attacking army is small enough that the enemy will not run away and willa ctually stay and fight. I believe the point values were very close, but the enemy has a disadvantage because not all of their units have arrived at the fight and it will take several turns for reinforcements to arrive. This is definately the most advantageous match up I've had in a battle since this campaign started. There is a impassable mountain in the middle of the map, so I have most of my army deployed on the edge of the deployment zone and facing diagonally so they can march forward and to the right and widen the line. There is also a narrow pass through the mountains. I send a couple units over there to make an attempt at flanking, but I don't send too many. I am worried about the enemy blocking off the other end of the pass, and having a bunch of units stuck unable to join the fight. so I just send one spear unit backed up by a bow unit. Our initial engagement goes well. Near the center, an enemy gun unit is dropped to fragmented after taking withering fire from my own guns and bows, and on the right my cavalry has charged enemy bows dropping them to disrupted. An enemy spear unit has charged my guns dropping them to disrupted and forcing them to fall back, however that unit has itself dropped to disrupted from heavy gun and bow fire. several of my spear samurai and cavalry units are engaged in close combat on the right, left and center. However I should have the upper hand in most of those battles because I brought my best units to this fight. I also have a few unengaged cav units on the for right that i am bring around for a massive flank attack. In the next turn, an enemy bow unit on the left doesn't like its chances in a shooting match against a gun unit, so it charges into close combat. However it doesn't really do any better in close combat and it drops to disrupted. An enemy gun units also charges forward, and has more success, dropping one of my guns to fragmented. And an enemy spear unit charges forward to engage my last gun unit. Next to that, my own spears have dropped an enemy spear unit to disrupted, forcing it to fall back. My bows meanwhile, are looking for targets, since they can't attack anyone engaged in close combat. They aim at some second row enemy units. They manage to break an enemy gun unit that was previously dropped to fragmented. They also autobreak an enemy gun samurai unit by inflicting massive casualties. While this is going on, my units have made it through the mountain pass and found some enemy cavalry. I decide to jsut hold position, and let the cavalry charge and fall back, while my bows rain down arrows on it. Neither side will have any units break on this part of the battle, so I won't really mention it again. On the left my guns break the enemy bow unit, but his guns break one of my gun units and his spears break another of my gun units. However concentrated fire from my bows breaks his spear unit. I also get a rear attack on his guns with my spears, dropping them to disrupted. On the right, I've broken an enemy cav unit and dropped his bow unit and spear unit to fragmented. On the right, the enemy line has completely collapsed. Both of the fragmented units in the previous turn have broken. Some of my units will be preoccupied chasing down breaking units, but when I get control of them again, they will be in a position to do some serious damage. In the center, the enemy is trying to even the odds in a close combat against my spears by bringing in another unit of its own spears. On the left I've highlighted an enemy hatamoto unit. This type of unit is even more elite than samurai. Its heavy armor means that bows basically do nothing, and many of my attempted bow attacks got zero or single digit kills. Guns are still fully effective though. If this unit decides to charge my ranged units, it could spell trouble. This unit did manage to break my own spear unit, after that spear unit broke an enemy gun unit. Going ahead a couple turns, you can see the enemy is in a bad situation. The enemy hatamoto unit has not charged, probably out of fear of exposing its flank to my cavalry which has arrived just in time. On the left, my cavalry had been engaged to enemy swords for a few turns and it has finally broken them. On the right my cavalry has surrounded an enemy cavalry and dropped to fragmented. The enemy has brought a gun and a bow unit of of the forest on the left, but when I have so many bows of my own, they have not chance at winning a shooting match. In the final combat resolution phase, I break the fragmented enemy cav and that's enough to win a victory. We were outnumbered, but only slightly, and some of the enemy units never made it to the fight. The enemy reinforcements showed up a couple turns before the battle ended and didn't have time to reach the battle. This victory is just the pick me up I need after the debacle of the previous battle. After the battle, I move the the crap tier leftover units army in Ueda to combine with the forces in Kasugayama. I move my army in Gifu to Ueda. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 10 2018, 12:42 PM Post #11 |
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Today we have a very short update. Finished a battle much quicker than expected. Spoiler: click to toggle I decide to follow up my victory in the previous update by beating up on that same enemy army again. I move my army in Kasugayama to Toyama.This is a bit of a risk, because my Kasugayama has mostly crap tier units, however the enemy army has taken a serious beating so it seems like we might still have a chance. In a very fortunate turn of events, the enemy army is once again not unified, and it will take several turns for reinforcements to arrive. Since I have no bows, there's no need for a second row, so I just deploy my troops in one long line. The deployment zone is just a little too narrow to fully spread them out, so I have one cavalry unit on the right behind my spear samurai. The fast speed of the cavalry will allow it to move up next to the samurai if needed. I have my only other cav unit on the left flank. kind of near the center but off to the right slightly is a gun unit and artillery. Aside from the one spear samurai unit, all other spears are ashigaru. And of course the units without a symbol by them are sword ashigaru. Spear and sword ashigaru form the bulk of this army, however the enemy army is not much better. Its main advantage is a larger number of ranged units, but that could become a liability if I can close the distance. The enemy initially waits for me to march forward, but as is often the case, once I get close they march forward as well. We meet at the small river. Small rivers like this are crossable, obviously because people are clearly crossing them, but reduce how far you can move, and I believe they negate the bonus cavalry gets when charging. There are a number of close combat encounters being fought at the moment. Some which are fairly even, like the cav vs cav combat on the far left, and some which should be to my advantage, like my spears charging an enemy bow unit on the left. An enemy spear unit is attempting to cross the river to attack my guns, but is getting shot by both my guns and my artillery, dropping the spears to disrupted. Since I have superior numbers, I am attempting to maneuver my units for flank attacks in a couple different locations. Moving ahead a couple of turns, a few things have happened. I've broken an enemy spear unit and an enemy sword unit. I'm moving in position to rear attack two enemy units. I've charged two enemy gun units and dropped them to disrupted, and an enemy bow unit is dropped to fragmented. During the various close combats, some of my units dropped to disrupted, including my guns, which are probably in the biggest danger right now. But if they can hold out one more turn, a rear attack to the enemy spears should save them. My guns drop to fragmented, but a rear attack breaks the enemy spears, just barely saving my gun units from breaking. I've broken two enemy gun units and a bow unit. I've now engaged in the last enemy gun and bow units. And I'm about to get a rear flank on the last enemy spear unit. At this point it should be obvious that I've beaten the enemy thoroughly, and there's no need to show the last couple turns. I actually managed to rout the enemy army before reinforcements showed up on the map, and without having a single one of my units break. Edited by 34625197, May 10 2018, 06:42 PM.
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| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 10 2018, 07:41 PM Post #12 |
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I've got another really quick battle in this update. Spoiler: click to toggle Surprisingly, the province of Toyama has fallen to my forces. This is particularly surprising because I didn't really have great odds of taking it, and my long running siege of Takayama had far better odds. But I guess this is what happens when there's an element of randomness. In any case, any province we can capture is good. The Tokugawa know they are going to be in trouble if they can't get a victory, so they launch an attack on what they think will be favorable odds. I don't exactly have the best army defending Kasugayama, but on the other hand the enemy's army is not exactly top notch either. Because this is a defensive battle, and because I am waiting for reinforcements, I have no reason to charge forward on the attack. I deploy my forces very close to the edge of the map, and wait for the enemy to come to me. I have a sword ashigaru and spear ashigaru in the forest. I have a spear samurai just next to them. I have a cavalry unit next to that. I have one gun unit standing on a built up area. The buildings on that square provide a very defensible position for light units, like my guns. And finally I have two more cavalry units on the right. The battle begins with an enemy bow samurai taking shots at my ashigaru in the forest. I don't want to just sit there and take the arrows, but my ashigaru are not favored to win a fight against a bow samurai, so I send my spear samurai forward to deal with it. 200 bow samurai are killed and the unit is forced to fall back. I also move my cavalry forward to cover the flank of my spear samurai. Also my reinforcements have arrived, and its a single unit of bow ashigaru, which I stick behind my cavalry on the right. Not a massive difference, but any help we can get is good. I advance my spear samurai forward to once again engage the enemy bow samurai. I also advance my ashigaru forward on either side of the samurai. I see an enemy sword unit and charge it with my cavalry, and drop it to disrupted, unsurprisingly because sword ashigaru are trash. On the right, an enemy spear unit is approaching my cavalry. I unleash gun and bow fire, dropping the spears to disrupted, before charging the weakened unit with my cavalry. On the right, an enemy spear unit approaches. One again I unleash a barrage from my ranged units, dropping the spears to disrupted, then charge with my cavalry. On the left I have my swords charge the enemy bow samurai. Swords are pretty crappy, but the enemy unit has dropped to disrupted and taken a bunch of casualties from its close combat against my samurai. My swords should do okay against this unit in its weakened state. I'm just hoping to break it a little faster by piling on multiple attacks, and there's very little a sword unit can do to be useful other than join in a battle that's already going well. Meanwhile, an enemy cavalry unit has moved forward, and stands face to face with my spear ashigaru. And another enemy cavalry unit is in the center positioning itself for a flank attack on my cavalry. On the left, the enemy bow samurai drop to fragmented and fall back again. Enemy cavalry charge my spear ashigaru and drop them to disrupted. And my cavalry are still engaged to enemy swords and also get charged from the flank by enemy cavalry. This flank attack does not drop the cohesion of my unit, but I'm not really sure why. I don't really feel like reading through the 130 page manual to try and figure it out. Still, even if the cohesion on that cav unit is okay for now, it should start taking quite a few casualties now that its in two combats at once. And on the right I've broken one enemy spear unit and dropped the other to fragmented. Going ahead a couple turns here. My swords finish off the fragmented enemy bow samurai and cause them rout. However, enemy cavalry breaks my spear ashigaru. My cavalry unit facing two enemies at once is holding together its cohesion, but its taking a lot of casualites now. I've got my spear samurai moving into position for a flank attack on the enemy swords. One of my cavalry units which had previously broken an enemy spear unit, breaks off the chase to attack an enemy bow unit of its own accord, and breaks that unit as well. Now my cav is positioning itself for a rear attack on an enemy cav unit. Meanwhile, my cav unit on the far right broke an enemy spear unit, and is now turning to face the enemy guns. On the right, my samurai cavalry unit is reduced to disrupted by the enemy guns. I decide I have no choice but to charge, even though the terrain is unfavorable. The close combat goes poorly reducing my cav to fragmented. However this is a very minor issue. I pull off two rear attacks, breaking an enemy sword unit and cav unit, and my cav unit that was fighting two units at once, managed to hold itself together the whole time. At this point the enemy has almost no units left on the field and will be forced to retreat. Not as completely flawless as the last battle, but still very good. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 11 2018, 02:24 PM Post #13 |
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In this post we are once again launching attacks to try and whittle down the enemy forces. Spoiler: click to toggle After several turns of besieging, the province of Takayama finally falls to our control. I also split up my armies in Ueda and Kasaguyama. The best units from both armies go to Kasaguyama and a few crap units from both are sent to Toyama. And then have the large army at Kasaguyama attack the enemy at Edo, currently the enemy's largest remaining army from what I can tell. My front line is basically symmetrical. I have artillery in the center. A gun unit on either side of the artillery. Each gun has a spear samurai next to it. There are two units of spear ashigaru on each side next to the samurai. And then two units of cavalry on the flanks. In the back row, there is one more unit of cavalry on the left. There is a bow unit slightly right of center behind my guns. I also have a handful of sword units spread out in the back row. I wasn't entirely sure what to do with the swords, but I figured they would fall pretty fast if put in the front line. I am keeping them in reserve initially, in the hopes an opportunity might arrive for them to assist the other units in close combat. Because it looks like the enemy is weak on my right, I start cautiously advancing two of my sword units forward. However, while they are moving through a forest on that side of the battle, they discover a hidden enemy gun unit. I've got my cavalry engaged to enemy cavalry and another cav unit is preparing to flank attack the enemy. I also have my spear samurai engaged to enemy bows. In the center, a combination of artillery and gun fire drops an enemy spear unit to disrupted. One of my spear ashigaru has charged enemy bows. To the left of that, my cavalry has charged enemy swords, dropping them to disrupted. And on the far left, two of my cav units engage one enemy cav. Both of my sword units have engaged the enemy guns in the forest. Its probably going to be a close fight, but I should have an advantage because its two on one. Thanks to a flank attack, the enemy cavalry on the right is reduced to fragmented. I have two spear ashigaru engaged to one enemy spear unit. My spear samurai continue their close combat with enemy bows, and drop it to disrupted. An enemy sword unit approaches my guns, but takes heavy fire in the process and drops to disrupted. An enemy spear unit I had previously dropped to disrupted charges my guns. I send one of my sword units to assist in that combat. Even though its not as good in combat as spears, the enemy units is already disrupted, and fighting two units at once should further hinder its fighting ability. Hopefully I can get the upper hand. One of my spear units was dropped to disrupted by gun fire, and I charge that gun unit dropping it to disrupted as well. I should have the upper hand in that close combat. In front of that, my spear samurai is still engaged to enemy bows. An enemy spear unit has come to assist in that combat and dropped my samurai to disrupted. I send my other sword unit in the area to assist against the bows, but it does poorly in the combat and drops to disrupted. Further to the left, my cavalry are still engaged in the same combats. Enemy cavalry has dropped to disrupted. An enemy spear unit is moving face to face with my own spears. The fractured enemy cav on the right breaks. One of my cav units chases off in pursuit of the fleeing unit, while my other cav units decides to attack another enemy cav unit in the area. The disrupted enemy bows break, and my spears march forward with an attack on another bow unit in the area. The disrupted enemy swords attack my guns but do poorly and are broken. Disrupted enemy spears engaged to my guns and swords break, and my swords run off in pursuit. Disrupted enemy guns engaged to my spears break, and my disrupted spears run off in pursuit. However, my disrupted spear samurai and disrupted swords both break. The enemy spears break off its pursuit to rear attack my cavalry and break them. And on the far left, the enemy cavalry has fallen to fragmented. In the forest on the right, my sword units have finally broken the enemy gun unit. Although I complain about sword ashigaru being complete garbage, in very specific situations you can get some use out of them. In a previous turn, one of my spear units was engaged with enemy bows. That bow unit dropped to disrupted and withdrew from close combat. However an enemy gun unit marches forward to shoot at my spears dropping them to disrupted, so I charge the spears. Meanwhile, a sword unit of mine which wandered into this part of the battlefield in pursuit of a breaking unit decides to break off its chase and attack the enemy bows, dropping them to fragmented. On the left, an enemy spear unit charges my own spears and drops them to fragmented, and my spears withdraw from close combat. However this is a minor issue, since we are kicking ass everywhere else. The enemy cavalry on the left breaks. One of my cav units rushes off in pursuit, but the other one abandons the chase to get a rear attack on enemy spears, dropping them to fragmented. I also break a disrupted enemy bow unit with gun fire. In the final close combat resolution phase, a couple of fragmented enemy units break, and that is enough to force them to retreat. Another glorious victory is won. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 12 2018, 02:02 PM Post #14 |
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In this update, the enemy combines most of its forces together for another large attack. Spoiler: click to toggle When the new year rolls around, both sides use their funds to recruit new soldiers. I send an army to lay siege to Okazaki. Meanwhile, the Tokugawa combine most of their forces into a very large army and try to force me out of Okazaki. I have 2 cavalry units on the right. Next to that is 3 gun units. Behind them there are five bows. In the middle of my forces is a forest, and I've placed 2 spear samurai in the forest. And on the left side I've got 6 cavalry units, with a couple more bow units in the back. We don't get off to a great start on the right. An enemy spear samurai has charged my guns and dropped them to disrupted. There is also an enemy bow samurai marching toward another of my gun units. The gun and bow fire I unleashed as they approached hasn't done substantial damage to the enemy yet. I am moving my cavalry around for a flank attack on the enemy spears. On the left, I have three cavalry units trying to surround an enemy spear unit. That unit is a heavily armored elite spear unit, above and beyond even spear samurai. Taking it down will be tough. Another of my cav units has charged a weaker enemy spear unit and dropped it to disrupted. My spear units in the forest are at an impasse. There's an enemy spear unit in the area, but this is one of those weird situations where whoever charges is at a disadvantage against the defender, so neither of us will attack. You'll see those units basically standing around not engaged in combat for almost the entire battle. Not too surprisingly, my gun unit breaks under the assault of the enemy spear samurai, however I do get a consolation prize. As the enemy samurai was chasing my broken unit, it moved into a perfect position to get flank attacked by my bows. I drop the enemy unit to fragmented. One of my cav units is staring down an enemy spear unit. This is another case where charging would be disadvantageous, so I'm just going to face him and keep the unit pinned in place, while my bows plink away at the unit. One of my gun units has dropped to disrupted from enemy bow fire. And an enemy sword unit has dropped to disrupted from my bows. And the enemy bow samurai have charged my gun unit in the built up area. On the far left, one of my cavalry units charged the enemy heavy spears, but withdrew because the engagement went poorly. However the other two cavalry units remain engaged in close combat. The heavy spears have dropped to disrupted. Meanwhile my cavalry engaged to weaker spears have dropped it to fragmented, but even more enemy spears are approaching my cavalry line. Fragmented enemy spears break, and my bows chase off in pursuit. Disrupted enemy swords break from bow and gun fire. The enemy bow samurai actually get the upper hand on my guns and drop them to fragmented forcing them to fall back. However, I get a flank attack on the enemy bows with my cavalry and drop them to fragmented as well. The fragmented enemy spears break and two of my cavalry units charge forward in pursuit. On the far left I was planning to have my cavalry charge back into close combat with the enemy heavy spears, but another spear unit has shown up to face it, so I've got yet another unit locked in an impasse, unable to charge, but also unable to move away without exposing its flank. My other two cavalry units are still locked in combat with the heavy spears, and fight seems to be very even. The fragmented enemy bows break. An enemy bow samurai charges my bow ashigaru, but my cavalry is already in the area so I charge the enemy bow samurai to try and assist. I have one gun unit and a couple bow units exchanging fire with an enemy gun unit. In the last turn two of my cav units charged forward in pursuit of a breaking enemy unit. One of those units gets charged by yet another enemy spear unit, and is forced to fall back. The other cav unit gets charged by two enemy cav units. However, despite it being two on one, my unit is doing quite well, and drops them both to disrupted. Otherwise this part of the battle is still pretty much the same. Enemy bow and gun fire has dropped my disrupted guns to fragmented, so now i have 2 fragmented gun units in that part of the battle. However, my own gun and bow fire drops the enemy guns to fragmented as well. The enemy bow samurai are still holding out against my own bows and cavalry, for now. But they are taking heavy casualties, and the flag is getting ragged. Nothing much really changed on the left side in this turn so I'm moving on to the next turn. The fragmented enemy guns break, and this causes the bows right behind it to drop to disrupted. Meanwhile, the enemy bow samurai have taken a beating from my cavalry and drop to fragmented. My cavalry that was taking on two enemy cav at once is doing quite well. It broke one of the enemy units, but another one is moving into position to charge it as well. Another enemy cav unit has dropped to fragmented. Meanwhile, I still have two cavalry engaged to enemy heavy spears. An enemy cavalry unit gets a flank attack on one of them, dropping it to disrupted. Way over on the right, this bow unit had been chasing a breaking spear samurai. It had finally broken off the pursuit and was headed back to the fight, when the spear samurai rallies to fragmented. So I turn the bow back around to deal with it. As long as the enemy unit is fragmented, my bows should be able to handle it. What we do not want is to give the enemy an opportunity to rally again, because a spear samurai could cause trouble. So quite a bit has changed here between this and the last turn. First of all, for quite awhile I've had a cav unit at an impasse with an enemy spear unit. However my bows finally picked away at the spears and dropped it to disrupted. This gave me the chance to charge the spears and break them, finally ending the impasse. One of my fragmented guns breaks from bow fire, and the other fragmented guns also break, just from being nearby a breaking unit. I did break the disrupted enemy bows with my own bow fire. And the fragmented bow samurai break, and my bows run off in pursuit. An enemy sword unit has moved forward to charge my bows, but it did poorly in combat and drops to disrupted. I am also turning my cavalry to get a rear attack. You can also see some enemy gun units on the edge of the screenshot. Not all of the enemy forces were on the battlefield from the start, and these are the reinforcements, but I think they're a little late to make much difference. My cavalry manages to break the fragmented enemy cavalry and runs off in pursuit. However two other enemy cav units in the area are in position to possibly get some flank or rear attacks. An enemy spear unit has charged my cavalry near the forest. Neither side has dropped cohesion, but the enemy spears are taking heavy casualties. Meanwhile, after fighting for much of the battle, the enemy heavy spears have finally dropped to fragmented, but one of my cav units has dropped to fragmented as well. The disrupted enemy swords break, after getting rear charged by my cavalry. My bows have charged enemy bows in the forest, and one of my cav units is advancing forward to hopefully charge enemy guns. Both the fragmented enemy heavy spears and my fragmented cav break. I have my victorious cav charge his victorious cav. Near the middle there's been a cav unit at an impasse with enemy spears for quite awhile, but my bows have been plinking away at it, and the ragged flag shows the toll that has been taken in casualties. And I still have one cav unit chasing a broken enemy cav unit. Two enemy cav units are chasing it, hoping to get a rear attack eventually. And it looks like some broken enemy spear unit has rallied to fragmented and is heading back to the battle, but at this point I don't think it will accomplish much. Not a whole lot happened on turn 19 so I'll jump ahead to the final turn. My bow units manage to drop an enemy spear unit to disrupted. At this point my spear units in the forest can do what they've been waiting to do for most of the battle and charge forward, breaking the enemy spears. I have a bow unit still fighting an enemy bow unit and my cavalry has charged enemy guns, but neither of those combats will be decisive before the battle is over. As expected, my cavalry unit which was pursuing a broken enemy unit was rear charged and broken. My cav unit which charged an enemy cav unit loses the combat, drops to disrupted and falls back. However those events don't matter too much because I break two enemy spear units with my cav, and that will be enough to give us a victory. We were pretty substantially outnumbered in this battle. Even without the enemy reinforcements that arrived too late to make a difference, I think we were still out numbed. But we dealt out another stinging defeat. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 13 2018, 03:26 PM Post #15 |
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In the previous update we inflicted a serious blow on the enemy in a defensive battle, and now its time to go on the attack again. Spoiler: click to toggle In the previous update I inflicted a crushing blow on the enemy, but they get a consolation prize. The province of kasugayama falls to a tiny enemy army. With an army that small their chances of taking the province should have been very small, so its pretty annoying to see it fall in a single turn. But in any case, I decide to keep up the pressure on the Tokugawa by attacking their larger army. On our right side is two units of spear samurai, and then two units of spear ashigaru closer to the middle. In the very middle is our three gun units, backed up by three bows in the second row. That unit in the very middle is a gun samurai, the first I've actually deployed in the campaign so far, although the enemy has used them a few times. And my left flank is 4 cavalry units. Two of them are deployed in the forest, but they can advance out of it before the enemy arrives, so I don't need to worry about them fighting at a disadvantage. We have an enemy spear unit approaching my cav on the left, but I turn some of my guns and bows to unload a barrage on him, and the enemy spears drop to disrupted. And on the far right, my spear samurai are engaged to enemy spear ashigaru. On the left, my cavalry engages enemy cavalry, while another of my cav units moves into position for a flank attack. Another one of my cavalry units is chasing an enemy spear unit it broke. And we have a heavy spear samurai unit approaching. I believe this is the remains of the same heavy unit from the previous battle. Due to the causalities it took in the last battle, it is a very small unit with just a few hundred guys, and it is very vulnerable to gun fire. My ranged units have already taken out more than a quarter of the soldiers in that heavy unit, and it should not last much longer. In the center, an enemy bow samurai thought it could get the upper hand against my spear ashigaru, and charged into close combat, which backfired spectacularly. The bow unit dropped to fragmented and withdrew from combat. And on the far right my spear samurai have broken the enemy spear ashigaru and are chasing them. On the left, all my cavalry are now engaged. I've got two cav units against one enemy cav, which has dropped to disrupted. I've got a one vs one cav fight, and that enemy cav has dropped to fragmented. And I've got one cav unit fighting enemy swords. The heavy spear unit broke from my gun fire so now I have my ranged units target some weaker enemy spear units in the area, both of which have dropped to fragmented. The fragmented bow samurai break and it causes a chain reaction dropping nearby enemy guns and bows to disrupted. Although a ton of stuff is going really well for us, there is one tiny negative, and that is the enemy cavalry charging one of my gun units and dropping it to fragmented. That spear samurai of mine that was chasing a breaking enemy unit stumbles on an enemy bow unit in the marsh. Instead of sending him back to the main fight, I'll just have my samurai attack this bow unit. On the far left, my cavalry units have dropped enemy cavalry to fragmented. My other cavalry breaks a fragmented enemy cav unit and chases it across the river. I have broken both fragmented enemy spear units with ranged attacks. The enemy cavalry has broken one of my guns and has now charged one of my bows. Meanwhile, one of my spears is in close combat with enemy bows. Another spear unit charged enemy guns, dropped them to fragmented, and forced them to fall back across the river. You can also see some enemy units on the edge of the screenshot, which are enemy reinforcements arriving too late to make a difference. On the far left, I've finally broken the enemy cav with two of mine. I have also broken the disrupted enemy bows and fragmented guns. At this point the enemy army is falling apart and will be forced to retreat. Once again we were outnumbered, but still triumphed. This isn't as serious a blow as the last battle, but we are wearing down the enemy forces. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 14 2018, 11:31 PM Post #16 |
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Since we have a long battle, I'm going to once again split a battle into two updates. Spoiler: click to toggle After my victory in the previous update, my armies continued to push deeper into enemy territory and occupy more provinces, and the Tokugawa chose to withdraw rather than fight because they were seriously outnumbered. But after about a year with no real battles, the Tokugawa finally amassed a grand army containing most of their troops, and attempted to dislodge one of my besieging armies. This desperate attack is sort of a last chance for them. If they win they might just hang on a little bit longer, but a defeat would certainly seal their fate. My forces are going to be greatly outnumbered, but we will be dug in at defensive positions. On my right is three units of cavalry. Next to that are 4 gun ashigaru and one artillery piece behind defensive positions, backed up by 3 bow units. Next to that are two cav units. I plan to advance them forward when the enemy gets close so they do not have to fight in the forest where they will be at a great disadvantage. Next to those cav units is a bow unit at a defensive position, and a gun samurai at another defensive position slightly forward. Inside the forest I have in this order, spear samurai, spear ashigaru, sword ashigaru, spear ashigaru, spear samurai, and spear ashigaru. And outside the forest on the far left is three more units of cavalry. I spot large numbers of enemy approaching my right and center. The enemy spear unit leading the charge on the right, has already dropped to fragmented. That unit is still out of range of my guns so its dropped cohesion purely from artillery and bows. The fragmented enemy spears have broken, but many more enemy spear units are advancing. I also move my two cav units that are in the forest forward one step, fearing that if I wait any longer they will be forced to fight in the forest. My gun samurai in the center of the battle are taking fire from two enemy bow units, so I advance my spear samurai forward to assist. But after advancing that guy forward I uncover more enemy units in the forest, so I eventually end up advancing the entire infantry line in that forest forward to deal with the enemies. However the enemy units get some free shots off, and one of my spear ashigaru has dropped to disrupted from surprise gun fire. Near the center, my lone bow unit was being threatened by an enemy spear unit, so I had one of my cav units charge it, but that unit gets flank attacked by another enemy spear unit. This was a massive blunder on my part because I should have noticed that it would be within the movement range of that unit and vulnerable to a flank attack. That unit breaking had additional effects of dropping the bows and other cav unit nearby to disrupted. My bows are also getting charged by a spear unit as well. However, despite this setback there is quit a bit that is going well on the right. A line of enemy spears and cavalry is approaching, but they are under heavy fire from guns, bows and artillery. Multiple enemy units have dropped to disrupted and one is even fragmented. I move my cavalry on the right froward to deal with some units on the flank that the ranged units can't deal with because they are focusing fire elsewhere. On the far left, my cavalry is attempting to contend with enemy cavalry. I have two spear units dealing with an enemy spear unit and I have dropped it to disrupted. And I have two spear units dealing with an enemy bow unit, but without a clear advantage yet. I also have an enemy spear unit fighting enemy swords, but without a clear advantage yet. I attempted to charge an enemy gun unit with my swords, but it backfired, the swords dropped to disrupted and fell back. This is why a few of my units remain unengaged, because they have poor odds of winning a close combat encounter, and I am worried about having them break. Of course just standing there is going to be bad, because the enemy has a lot of ranged units to plink away at my units. But if I charge into close combat, my units will probably break faster than if they just sit their and take the enemy fire. The only hope is if my other units can win a few combats and come to assist. There is really nothing else that can save those units now. Things are going very well on the right. A bunch of enemy units have broken, while other are disrupted or fragmented. The concentrated fire from guns bows and artillery are ripping them apart. In the center, things are not going so well. On the good side my cav unit that dropped to disrupted has rallied back to normal. And thanks to the massive benefits of the fortified position, the spear unit attacking my bows has dropped to disrupted, and is taking some serious casualties. However, my bows are now being attacked by a second spear unit and have dropped to fragmented. Meanwhile, my gun samurai are taking a beating. The enemy has a bunch of ranged units in the area and many of them are targeting my gun samurai. Even with the defenses providing some cover, the casualties are mounting. Of course my guns are taking shots of their own, but its just one unit, and can only do so much. It looks like the center is on the verge of collapse. On the far left, I have two cav units ganging up on one enemy cav unit, and dropped it to fragmented. Meanwhile, my two spear units break an enemy spear unit and drop a nearby cav unit to disrupted. Notice that I have my own cav unit staring down that disrupted cav, but the odds are not favorable, so I don't charge. Another unit is stuck in an impasse for now. And my two spear units engaged to the enemy bows have dropped it to disrupted. However that's the end of the good news. The bad news is that my spears engaged to enemy swords lose the fight, drop to disrupted and fall back. An enemy monk unit charges another spear unit, drops it to disrupted, and forces it to fall back as well. There are quite a few units in that forest that are in a precarious situation, but since I am still doing okay further to the left of that, I may still be able to save those units. On the right, my cavalry are still engaged to the enemy cavalry, but they seem to have the upper hand. And my guns and bows continue to break more enemy units. The massive spear line that the enemy had a few turns ago is pretty much obliterated. In the center right area, my cav is still engaged to an enemy spear unit and dropped it to fragmented. I charge one of my guns forward to try and hurry up and break the spear. However, the enemy is sending forward its elite heavy spear unit to charge my cav, and my cav drops to disrupted. Meanwhile more towards the center, my fragmented bows break, and the enemy spears chase it into the forest. My gun samurai are still holding together for now, but they continue to take a beating from concentrated enemy fire. On the left, my two cav units break a fragmented enemy cav unit. One rushes off in pursuit of the breaking unit, and the other charges another enemy cav unit in the area, does poorly in combat, and drops to disrupted. The enemy bow unit engaged to two of my spears stubbornly holds together at disrupted and refuses to drop its cohesion any further. I turn another spear unit towards its flank to prepare for an attack next turn and hopefully break it already. Meanwhile, enemy swords charge one of my disrupted spears. Fortunately it did not drop any more cohesion levels, but it did lose the combat and was forced to fall back another step. Meanwhile, one of my disrupted spears has dropped to fragmented from enemy gun fire. The situation in that forest is starting to look dire. On the right, most of the enemy cav units have broken. I've got one cav unit engaging the last enemy cav unit in this area, while my other cav units are chasing down breaking enemy units. Every last one of the enemy spears that attempted to approach this fortified position have been broken. One of my guns is chasing down a breaking spear unit that it charged previously, but it is head right into the line of fire of multiple enemy units, and that will not end well. Meanwhile, my disrupted cav is still engaged to enemy heavy spears. It hasn't dropped any more cohesion levels, but it is taking some serious casualties and not doing much damage to the heavily armored enemy. On the left, my disrupted cav are still engaged to enemy cav. So far, no more cohesion drops and the casualties aren't too serious yet, so hopefully that unit can hold out just a little bit longer. My other cav unit has broken off its pursuit of a routing unit so I've moved it into position for a flank attack. Hopefully we can break that cav unit as well without too much trouble. Meanwhile, I've managed to get a flank attack on the enemy bows with my spear samurai, and dropped it to fragmented. But despite being attacked from three different units at once, it still hasn't broken. A bit of good news is that two of my disrupted spears and one of my disrupted swords rally up to normal status. Some bad news is that my fragmented spears get charged by enemy guns and break. This causes the neighboring spear samurai to drop to disrupted, and then concentrated fire from enemy guns and bows break that unit as well. Things have generally gone pretty well on the right in the past, but there's nothing but bad news to report on this particular turn. The gun unit that was chasing a routing enemy units gets charged and broken by two enemy gun units. My cav engaged to enemy heavy spears gets broken as well. That heavy spear unit is very dangerous. I turn some of my ranged units to get some shots on it, and try and kill as many men as possible before its inevitable charge on my ranged units. And my gun samurai in the center has finally broken from casualties. Now that my center is well and truly broken, my army is cut into two pieces separated by significant distance, with little chance of assisting each other. On the left, my disrupted cavalry engaged to enemy cavalry drop to fragmented. However a flank attack from my other cav unit drops the enemy to disrupted. Enemy monks charge one of my spear units, dropping it back down to disrupted, and force it back a step. Meanwhile, my three spear units finally break the enemy bows. One of them breaks off the chase to get a flank attack on enemy swords, and breaks that unit as well. This relieves some of the pressure on this side of the battle field. The enemy still has a bunch of units in the area, mostly ranged units, which threaten to pick apart my forces, but the situation doesn't seem as dire as it was before. My cavalry unit on the right engaged to enemy cavalry is actually losing the fight, and dropped to disrupted. A broken enemy cav unit behind our lines has rallied to fragmented. I turn a bow unit to face it, hoping to break it again with a rain of arrows. If it rallies again, it could cause serious damage. And the heavy spear unit is approaching, its now in position to charge on the next turn. Our concentrated fire has dealt some serious casualties, but an elite unit like that should be able to keep fighting even if it falls below half strength, so it could still be a threat. And it looks like several other enemy units are headed in this direction, hoping to finally break our defensive position. My fragmented cav is still holding together, and the disrupted enemy cav has now dropped to fragmented. That engagement is turning into a nail biter. In the forest, both sides are repositioning their forces, without a lot of action yet. However there are two close combats in progress. My spear samurai are attacking enemy guns, and my swords are charged by enemy monks. Neither combat is decisive yet. However, my swords are in danger of being flanked, since the enemy has a few units in the area that could attack from that direction. I turn my disrupted spears so they can move into position to guard that flank. Since this is already a fairly long update, the conclusion to the battle will be in the next post. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| 34625197 | May 15 2018, 10:45 PM Post #17 |
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Archduke of Administration
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And now for the conclusion. Spoiler: click to toggle On the right, my disrupted cav engaged to enemy cav has dropped to fragmented. I have another cav unit moving to assist, but I don't know if it will make it in time. The fragmented enemy cav behind my lines rallies to disrupted and gets right up to my bows but doesn't quite have the movement points to charge. I turn some of my guns to shoot at it, and drop it back down to fragmented. For the time being this threat is under control. And I have another unit charge and break a disrupted enemy spear unit, but in its pursuit of the breaking enemy it moved into a position to easily be flank attacked by the enemy in the next turn. And one of my gun units has been charged by heavy spear infantry, but thanks to the strong defenses of that position, its holding out okay for now. On the left I had two cav units engaged to one fragmented enemy cav unit, which has now broken, and my own fragmented cav rally up to disrupted. However things are going poorly in the forest. My sword unit engaged to enemy monks gets flank attacked by enemy guns, something I feared might happen. I was moving a disrupted spear unit into position to protect the flank but it didn't get their in time. And even worse, my disrupted spears discovered yet another enemy gun unit in the forest, get shot up, and drop to fragmented. I have a spear unit engaged in close combat with enemy bows, which is losing the fight, and has dropped to fragmented. I have an unengaged spear unit getting shot to pieces which has dropped to disrupted. That whole line of infantry in the forest is on the verge of collapse. The fragmented enemy cav behind my lines break. My own fragmented cav gets broken by enemy cav, but another of my cav units gets a rear charge on the enemy cav and breaks it as well. My other cav unit that was chasing broken spears breaks off the pursuit to charge an enemy gun unit, dropping it to disrupted, but gets rear charged by enemy spears and drops to disrupted itself. My infantry line in the forest is collapsing. Two spear units and my sword unit break. Another of my spear units has dropped to disrupted. I attempt to break at least one more enemy unit on this side, so I charge the enemy cav with 3 of my cav units at once. I drop it to disrupted, but its taking very few casualties and the fight seems to be fairly even despite my 3 to 1 advantage. My disrupted cavalry breaks. An enemy sword unit approaches my guns and gets shot to hell, and drops to disrupted. And an enemy bow unit emerges from the forest to charge my bows. It could potentially do more damage to my bows than the spear unit, because the spears are attacking across defenses, but the enemy bows are actually inside my defenses now. I charge his bows with one of my own bow units to try and even up the fight. On the left the situation continues to worsen. Two of my disrupted spear units break. Another spear unit is getting show up by enemy guns and drops to disrupted. The enemy cav stubbornly hangs on to its disrupted status despite being attacked from three directions at once. My concentrated gun fire break the enemy swords. I am moving my cav to get a flank attack on the enemy bows, if the close combats its already in don't break it first. The enemy cav rallies back up to normal cohesion, but my disrupted cav also rally up to normal so I guess its fair. But its still annoying that this three pronged attack on the enemy cav doesn't seem to be having much effect at all. Meanwhile, my disrupted spears continue to get shot up and drop to fragmented. The disrupted enemy bows break and my own bows chase off after them and get rear attacked by another enemy bow unit, and drop to fragmented. The enemy heavy spears finally break from casualties, and this causes a nearby enemy spear unit to drop to disrupted. Since I have favorable odds, I charge this spear unit with my cavalry. And an enemy gun unit has approached my lines to engage in a shooting match, but we have him outnumbered. The enemy guns drop to disrupted. And on the left, my fragmented spears break, but not much else has changed. The enemy cav stubbornly hangs on, and one of ym cav units even drops to disrupted. In the final combat resolution phase, my fragmented bows break, but two of the disrupted enemy units break, putting us over the threshold of victory, but it was close. Since the enemy lost the battle they take additional casualities in retreat, and and the are absolutely crushed by this defeat. I don't think I ever mentioned what the victory conditions are for the campaign actually. But basically the combined value of your armies and provinces needs to be three times as much as the enemy. And after dealing out the massive casualties in the last battle, I finally meet those conditions and win the campaign. Usually these campaigns end with a whimper and not a bang in my experience, but we actually got lucky with a pretty nice battle at the end to cap it off. Arguably the best battle of the entire campaign. Now that the campaign is over, anyone who actually read this far can let me know if they want to see another campaign. I don't really want to do another campaign in sengoku era Japan because the units are going to be the same, but there are several other campaigns to choose from. The Japanese invasion of korea. The Japanese side will have the same units as this camapaign but korea will have very different units. The Mongol invasion of Japan. This campaign is something of a what if scenario and the mongol army is not shipwrecked by typhoons and actually posese a serious threat. Becuase its a few centuries earlier, the japanese side would have slightly different composition, and of course the mongol army would be very different. There's also the jurchen invasion of Korea. I belie there were a few campaigns involving the china but I don't remember them all off the top of my head. One was a Ming vs Qing campaign, and I think another was Qing vs rebels. If anyone actually finished reading this and is interested ins seeing one of those campaigns, leave a comment. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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| Bran Triune | May 16 2018, 06:02 PM Post #18 |
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Resident Wizard/Insane Alcoholic
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Oh man I would love to see Japan v Korea. Ming v Qing is my second pick, then Qing v Rebels, Mongols, and Jerchen |
| You'll wind up wearing tattered shoes if you mess with Mister Booze | |
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| 34625197 | May 17 2018, 12:07 PM Post #19 |
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Archduke of Administration
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I've done the Japan vs Korea campaign before as the Japanese side, but I might do another one as a lets play as the Korean side. I'm somewhat familiar with the units, having fought against them, but it wills till be interesting to try and use them for myself. So I may start that campaign in the near future. |
| Normally I would be "oh no, the economy", but if it puts tweedle dum out of business, I'm happy -Bran Triune | |
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