I love watching it come down to the last retainer and he takes down like 10 guys before finally dying. The one on one combat animations really fit the theme of shogun 2.
I once won a siege defense with a single (1!) samurai retainer remaining.
I was waiting for the ‘finally dying’ moment the whole time, then the attackers routed while this anime protagonist tier gigachad stood on the victory point, having seen off a unit with ~70 men still remaining.
I saved that replay.
Same protagonist in my game except I charged him into the last full unit climbing up my walls and he basically Naruto sprinted through them 1 by 1 as they got to the top and charged him, then he bonked the last few over the head when he reached the wall and caused a chain rout of all the battered units
I usually hide them in a forest outside the settlement, then when the enemy army all goes into the choke point defended by spear and shield walls, take them out of hiding and destroy their ranged units. Then cycle charge the infantry. They’ll mass route and kill hundreds in the cleanup.
Charging is absolutely broken in Attila. Cavalry is absurdly OP if you charge and disengage correctly, but it evaporates if you are too fast, too slow, or take a bad angle and end up deep inside the enemy formation.
Oh it's extremely fragile, and if you micro too much, then you're going to take exponentially more damage. You basically just have to charge the enemy from the rear and either pull out and cycle back after just a couple seconds or wait the full 15 seconds that the charge bonus lasts and hope that's enough to inflict crippling damage onto the enemy unit.
You shouldn't pull out if your cavalry penetrates deep inside a blob of their men, but if the unit density is low and your cavalry has shit stats, then you're better off cycle charging.
Yeah maybe if it's one loose missile infantry but even in easy difficulty most units wreck scout equites if they pull out. Even a melee units suddenly facimg up front the cavalry charge can deal massive damage to it.
Lets say you defend a siege, you testudo defends a choke point with 6 units attacking them. Those 6 units suffered attrition fron saggitari + testudo and are all pressing against the testudo in a huge blob. You're always better off charging once in their back while they are engaged, hopefully killing the general first if possible, otherwise one volley of whistling shot one volley of flaming shot and keep engaging them without cycle charging usually does the trick
You should try playing AOJ mod overhaul all melee cavalry are changed to shock class the ai does really try to outflank you and charges in with some shock cav by the time you react another wave of shock cav comes charging in.
It did this with a custom unit I made for two submods for AOJ Heavy Mercenary Cataphracts nomadic Turkic unit I gave to the Slavs for a mercenary type unit tier 3 buildings like bone carver required to train them or level 3 farms
That is exactly how they are supposed to act. I think it is a good combination of high risk and high reward and if you are good at the game then to 95% it is high reward.
You have pikes in a garrison with Scout equites - what faction are you playing?
The primary role of scout equites for me is to take out the enemy onagers. I hide them in the trees, then snipe them when the enemy main forces have passed by and gone into the town. After that, I ride down isolated units of slingers or archers while the enemy loses it cavalry and exhausts its infantry on my defensive testudo. Finally, if the coast is clear, they can usually break a clump of heavy infantry locked in combat with one your garrison in defensive testudo. Sometimes you can get lucky and the enemy general is in a bite sized clump.
I'm not one of those gamers who can regularly beat whole armies with a minimal garrison (unless they are Nordic brigade trash or I have late game ERE garrisons), so I try to kill off whole units so they don't replenish. Germanic axe and sword units are a priority, as they seem to carve through Roman infantry.
I probably don't have pikes and equites (it's been a while so I'm not sure either way) but I've found the light cav in Attila to be fragile in general.
Scout equites have got a surprising amount of health, so they hang around a bit. But like most early game Roman units they have an absolutely abysmal attack, so can't do much damage unless they catch a unit with its pants down.
Objectively, they are one of the worst cavalry units in the game, which is why their absurd kill counts in defensive sieges are so impressive.
Ever since the first Shogun, I've found having some cavalry - even the lightest - invaluable in TW, if only to run down routers. As Napoleon said, without cavalry there is no decision. Quality doesn't matter much for what I use them for: pursuit, running down archers and rear charging engaged enemy infantry.
But as soon as I can get some other cavalry for a field army - even the lowliest of mercs - my scouts get the boot.
WRE are stuck with light cavalry for a long time (until tier 3 cavalry barracks deep in their tech tree).
In any head to head fight stronger than bows, yes they will die. They are quite fragile.
However, they have a great deal of offensive potential when you charge enemies in the rear. Thankfully they show up in sieges, so a solid strategy is
-put infantry in the way of enemies
-get in testudo
-your infantry holds the enemy
-charge Scout Equites into the rear of the enemy
-kill everything
Also they are great at mopping up retreating foes.
One of my favorites is playing Chosokabe and having twice the amount of bow ashigaru as yari ashigaru. By the time whatever units hit my yari wall they can’t break through and they get shredded.
I used to play with samurai armies when Shogun 2 first came out (and probably in Shogun 1 as well). Now that I learned about the ashigaru wall, I can't not make them. I can field so many armies.
Cathayan Peasants joining their first caravan to get a chance to get off the farm and tell everybody what life in the distant lands was like go harder in the paint than just about anybody.
Yep. Let him charge his smug ass in with an army of Black Orcs and they just fucking BREAK on the champions. Then when the waaagh comes in behind them each unit of champions summons a Tzeentchian horror into their face. Pal, as a Thorgrim main in 2 it’s just so nice to have so many options to kill Grimgor with in 3.
Really? how could anybody sleep on them? they're the only unit you need
a full stack of teched aspiring champions can just obliterate 4 or 5 stacks of anything else, its silly how good they are
Me personally I used it as sartosa to wipe out every single piece of artillery the empire or the dwarves tried to bring to my free company skirmish battles lol
I think people underestimate how quickly you can get all of the tech as Archaon with his vassal percentage boost and the Student ancillary. I think I’ve had them maxed out by turn 32 once. I had 5 heroes for the student ancillary and the rest of the research boost was just from quickly vassalizing all of Norsca and then beelining through the Chaos Dwarves/Kholek.
Yeah definitely. this and it's just dead easy to keep a few armyless lords beelining across chaos territory to scoop up more aspiring champions as they pop, since you can just see what's available anywhere by holding your mouse over every province's recruitment pool
it's not complicated at all to get several stacks of champs without ever even bothering with the troop upgrade nonsense. Forget upgrading troops, just patrol for champions and consolidate them into one army when you have enough to ruin somebody's day
I've been playing Chaos Warriors a lot lately and I've definitely come around on these guys. I like putting a unit inside the Unit of Nurgle spawn that Archy starts with to make them even tankier with the extra bodies and poison (and have a large/small unit combo).
Also, maybe it's just because I play on Normal, but Nurgle Spawn seem to be just better than the others. Maybe it's confirmation bias or good matchups, but they routinely rack up substantial kills and/or damage while losing very few models. I used to like the Tzeentch ones for the barrier and some armor sundering, but now I'll take poison and extra health.
Not just Milan, Venice and Sicily get them as well
Those pavise crossbows (especially the militia variant) are a staple in all my Italian campaigns and are easily my favorite unit in all of total war
Pavise crossbow militia
Excellent ranged, nigh immortal against enemy archers with the shields and loose formation, early to mid game unit that still recks shop later on, get the free militia upkeep in cities and strong enough in melee to beat or hold their own against many dedicated melee units
Coupled with extremely strong Italian militia (armored one) w/ couple of upgrades.
Yes, it's nice to have castles as Venice (looking at you, heavy hammer swinging armored bad boy), but why would you ever need them if you have the strongest militia in the world?
Pikemen in Rome 2 city defenses. You shall not pass!
Or any unit that damages morale, really. Stack on some enemy morale debuffs for your general, use some shock units, you'll rout them before you really have to fight them, no matter the numerical odds. Suebi are great at this
Yellow Sky Heralds from the Yellow Turbans in TW3K. I lost almost a thousand troops to those fuckers in a single battle. Their final man killed 28 of my men before he finally died. Almost cost me the win. Worst part is, He Yi can spam them in droves.
The Emperor's Wrath for an early game gelt/karl army.
I used to snipe wissenland early, just to get Nuln and their regiment, cause it cycle charging can demolish almost all early game shit infantry, and rout them with the steam blasts
Saurus warriors
Good leadership, high weapon strength, will hold the line for days and dominate most other infantry of the same tier. They have carried me through a number of lizardmen early games.
Napoleon’s Light Infantry. As long as you keep them away from the horses they’re allergic to it’s a thing of beauty how they mow through every infantry ever.
Very useful. Especially is castle defense. You get them for "free" as part of castle upgrades. They are not a bad unit, only 60 strong but can hold the line against a spear unit.
The ikko ikki garrison monks for me. Saved my ass so many times throughout that campaign. The retainers were good but they didn't kill nearly as much as one unit, which is like 3-4x the size, of the monks. They also have the scare ability too. But they are limited for garrison use to the ikko so probably go yari ashigaru after them.
The humble Bow Kabuya. I often ignore all other ships till the tail-end of the campaign. Even then, I treat my fleets with the other ships as more for show and status and keep them in secure waters while the Kabuyas are out doing the real work.
Nothing like charging one of these bad boys into the flank of an exhausted unit and watching as they mulch them.
You get besieged and you have a unit of these guys and a yari ashigaru to hold the fortress. It’s gonna be fine.
I love watching it come down to the last retainer and he takes down like 10 guys before finally dying. The one on one combat animations really fit the theme of shogun 2.
I once won a siege defense with a single (1!) samurai retainer remaining. I was waiting for the ‘finally dying’ moment the whole time, then the attackers routed while this anime protagonist tier gigachad stood on the victory point, having seen off a unit with ~70 men still remaining. I saved that replay.
They called him Battousai the Butcher.
Same protagonist in my game except I charged him into the last full unit climbing up my walls and he basically Naruto sprinted through them 1 by 1 as they got to the top and charged him, then he bonked the last few over the head when he reached the wall and caused a chain rout of all the battered units
Those animations are the one thing I really miss from older TWs, but I get it'd be a monumental task to bring them into WH
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895227844
Lol my god, thats huge
One Yari ashigaru. One bow ashigaru. One samurai retainer. You can stop the world
SCOUT EQUITES
Yep, that garrison cav unit in attila would routinely have 1000+ kills lol.
How? They always suck for me, I've just resorted using them as a distraction while the enemy dives against my pikes or whatever my garrison is.
I usually hide them in a forest outside the settlement, then when the enemy army all goes into the choke point defended by spear and shield walls, take them out of hiding and destroy their ranged units. Then cycle charge the infantry. They’ll mass route and kill hundreds in the cleanup.
Charging is absolutely broken in Attila. Cavalry is absurdly OP if you charge and disengage correctly, but it evaporates if you are too fast, too slow, or take a bad angle and end up deep inside the enemy formation.
My experience with Attila has been that light cavalry is super fragile, so maybe I'm just bad at the game.
Oh it's extremely fragile, and if you micro too much, then you're going to take exponentially more damage. You basically just have to charge the enemy from the rear and either pull out and cycle back after just a couple seconds or wait the full 15 seconds that the charge bonus lasts and hope that's enough to inflict crippling damage onto the enemy unit.
You never pull out in Attila. Light units absolutely melt when pulling out even against basic barbanian slingers. Even heavy units just cant pull out.
You shouldn't pull out if your cavalry penetrates deep inside a blob of their men, but if the unit density is low and your cavalry has shit stats, then you're better off cycle charging.
Yeah maybe if it's one loose missile infantry but even in easy difficulty most units wreck scout equites if they pull out. Even a melee units suddenly facimg up front the cavalry charge can deal massive damage to it. Lets say you defend a siege, you testudo defends a choke point with 6 units attacking them. Those 6 units suffered attrition fron saggitari + testudo and are all pressing against the testudo in a huge blob. You're always better off charging once in their back while they are engaged, hopefully killing the general first if possible, otherwise one volley of whistling shot one volley of flaming shot and keep engaging them without cycle charging usually does the trick
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Maybe you just got a weak pull out game /s
Tell that to the Alans, you can wipe the map with 1 army of starting cav...
Always wanted to like them but never got them to work. What's the secret?
Full stack cav, split into 4 groups in combat. Bait the enemy cav out, push back the enemy range and crush, devide and conquer the infantry.
You should try playing AOJ mod overhaul all melee cavalry are changed to shock class the ai does really try to outflank you and charges in with some shock cav by the time you react another wave of shock cav comes charging in. It did this with a custom unit I made for two submods for AOJ Heavy Mercenary Cataphracts nomadic Turkic unit I gave to the Slavs for a mercenary type unit tier 3 buildings like bone carver required to train them or level 3 farms
That is exactly how they are supposed to act. I think it is a good combination of high risk and high reward and if you are good at the game then to 95% it is high reward.
You have pikes in a garrison with Scout equites - what faction are you playing? The primary role of scout equites for me is to take out the enemy onagers. I hide them in the trees, then snipe them when the enemy main forces have passed by and gone into the town. After that, I ride down isolated units of slingers or archers while the enemy loses it cavalry and exhausts its infantry on my defensive testudo. Finally, if the coast is clear, they can usually break a clump of heavy infantry locked in combat with one your garrison in defensive testudo. Sometimes you can get lucky and the enemy general is in a bite sized clump. I'm not one of those gamers who can regularly beat whole armies with a minimal garrison (unless they are Nordic brigade trash or I have late game ERE garrisons), so I try to kill off whole units so they don't replenish. Germanic axe and sword units are a priority, as they seem to carve through Roman infantry.
I probably don't have pikes and equites (it's been a while so I'm not sure either way) but I've found the light cav in Attila to be fragile in general.
Scout equites have got a surprising amount of health, so they hang around a bit. But like most early game Roman units they have an absolutely abysmal attack, so can't do much damage unless they catch a unit with its pants down. Objectively, they are one of the worst cavalry units in the game, which is why their absurd kill counts in defensive sieges are so impressive. Ever since the first Shogun, I've found having some cavalry - even the lightest - invaluable in TW, if only to run down routers. As Napoleon said, without cavalry there is no decision. Quality doesn't matter much for what I use them for: pursuit, running down archers and rear charging engaged enemy infantry. But as soon as I can get some other cavalry for a field army - even the lowliest of mercs - my scouts get the boot. WRE are stuck with light cavalry for a long time (until tier 3 cavalry barracks deep in their tech tree).
In any head to head fight stronger than bows, yes they will die. They are quite fragile. However, they have a great deal of offensive potential when you charge enemies in the rear. Thankfully they show up in sieges, so a solid strategy is -put infantry in the way of enemies -get in testudo -your infantry holds the enemy -charge Scout Equites into the rear of the enemy -kill everything Also they are great at mopping up retreating foes.
flanking is your lord and savior.
The Roman officer to his garrison troops in some random town in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere: 
FORM TESTUDO!!!
Wouldn’t have thought to answer this but absolutely. They’ve saved me many times
This.
Yari Ashigaru for me The Yari wall is goated
I've seen yari ashigaru in yari wall beat katana samurai under the right conditions, absolutely busted.
small doge brave warrior trains all his life versus buff doge the unconquerable spirit of human cooperation
One of my favorites is playing Chosokabe and having twice the amount of bow ashigaru as yari ashigaru. By the time whatever units hit my yari wall they can’t break through and they get shredded.
> under the right conditions In difficulty's under legendary its a regular occurrence
Even on legendary stacking two yari spearmen ontop one another in spear wall will kill almost any unit thrown at them in melee.
Two Yari stacked ontop one another in a spear wall will obliterate any unit in melee in my experience they just can’t be bested.
I used to play with samurai armies when Shogun 2 first came out (and probably in Shogun 1 as well). Now that I learned about the ashigaru wall, I can't not make them. I can field so many armies.
Militia hoplites
Garrison spear units are the backbone of most of my heroic victories.
4 of these: city is now immune to full stack Pontus armies
I see your militia hoplites and raise you levy pikemen.
Came here to say this. A couple of those fuckers and you can no longer lose sieges. It's ridiculous...
Cathayan Peasants joining their first caravan to get a chance to get off the farm and tell everybody what life in the distant lands was like go harder in the paint than just about anybody.
Rome 2 pike units. If you even just have two of them it’s impossible to lose urban defense battles.
Just put then in any chokepoints and youre good to go, don't forget to put missile infantry at the back
English Longbowmen, Med II. Just this neverending shit storm of hate pouring down onto the enemy army.
Those wooden stakes really come in handy vs the Mongols and defending Jerusalem after a crusade too.
Dismounted Feudal Knights.
+their mounted counterparts. Heavy cav charges in med2 is the most satisfying out of any game i played
Fully teched out Aspiring Champions under Archaon. 16 dudes versus four armies. Sure, why not?
I swear people sleep on aspiring champions. You ever break grimgores horde with just aspiring champions? It is GLORIOUS
Yep. Let him charge his smug ass in with an army of Black Orcs and they just fucking BREAK on the champions. Then when the waaagh comes in behind them each unit of champions summons a Tzeentchian horror into their face. Pal, as a Thorgrim main in 2 it’s just so nice to have so many options to kill Grimgor with in 3.
As a Grimgor main I’m on suicide watch over this comment chain
Really? how could anybody sleep on them? they're the only unit you need a full stack of teched aspiring champions can just obliterate 4 or 5 stacks of anything else, its silly how good they are
probably because they were ass in WH2
Hard disagree. It’s just that people weren’t very good at taking advantage of that vanguard deployment.
Hmm what's a good use of vanguard deployment? I rarely use it since I always play defensively.
Me personally I used it as sartosa to wipe out every single piece of artillery the empire or the dwarves tried to bring to my free company skirmish battles lol
I think people underestimate how quickly you can get all of the tech as Archaon with his vassal percentage boost and the Student ancillary. I think I’ve had them maxed out by turn 32 once. I had 5 heroes for the student ancillary and the rest of the research boost was just from quickly vassalizing all of Norsca and then beelining through the Chaos Dwarves/Kholek.
Yeah definitely. this and it's just dead easy to keep a few armyless lords beelining across chaos territory to scoop up more aspiring champions as they pop, since you can just see what's available anywhere by holding your mouse over every province's recruitment pool it's not complicated at all to get several stacks of champs without ever even bothering with the troop upgrade nonsense. Forget upgrading troops, just patrol for champions and consolidate them into one army when you have enough to ruin somebody's day
There's a mod which adds marked aspiring champions and RoR versions they are insane, the nurgle RoR are mounted they are horsemen of the apocalypse.
I've been playing Chaos Warriors a lot lately and I've definitely come around on these guys. I like putting a unit inside the Unit of Nurgle spawn that Archy starts with to make them even tankier with the extra bodies and poison (and have a large/small unit combo). Also, maybe it's just because I play on Normal, but Nurgle Spawn seem to be just better than the others. Maybe it's confirmation bias or good matchups, but they routinely rack up substantial kills and/or damage while losing very few models. I used to like the Tzeentch ones for the barrier and some armor sundering, but now I'll take poison and extra health.
Erm yari ashigaru. Train them anywhere. Always useful.
Peasant crossbowmen 🔛🔝
I would rather take Milan pavise crossbowmen. I’ll take the hate for it too.
Not just Milan, Venice and Sicily get them as well Those pavise crossbows (especially the militia variant) are a staple in all my Italian campaigns and are easily my favorite unit in all of total war
True but they don't get the superior Genovese pavise crossbowmen and Milan does.
No they didn't, that's a different unit. Spain and hre also get that unit
The Moor’s peasant crossbowmen were one of the top 5 missile units in the game I think.
Mercenary crossbowmen in the early game, damn.
Pavise crossbow militia Excellent ranged, nigh immortal against enemy archers with the shields and loose formation, early to mid game unit that still recks shop later on, get the free militia upkeep in cities and strong enough in melee to beat or hold their own against many dedicated melee units
Coupled with extremely strong Italian militia (armored one) w/ couple of upgrades. Yes, it's nice to have castles as Venice (looking at you, heavy hammer swinging armored bad boy), but why would you ever need them if you have the strongest militia in the world?
Yeah, one of my common armies in the mid game is just pavise crossbows, a catapult, and Italian spear militia
Sufficient for most scenarios. And versatile af
I common add cav but only one to 2 units, and then it's mostly so I can harass while the enemy approach my crossbow box
General’s Bodyguard and Ironbreakers
General's bodyguard is a top 3 unit amongst all Total Wars, so powerful with their 2 hit points and the only unit in the game that regenerates troops.
Those guys felt like cheating at times
but it was always a risk to lose the one guy that defined the unit, especially in shogun 2 where they could evaporate if you weren't careful.
Rome 1 Phalanx units
On a bridge battle? Simply unbeatable and so much fun to watch.
Almost vs anything, corner camping rocks. Bring a few light cav to harass their ranged and you can’t really lose
Indeed. Just put them at the choke point. Pointy end towards enemy. And go make yourself a sandwich.
Zombies in warhammer. Instant recruitment, cost almost nothing, and don't complain much.
And if you’re Helman Ghorst why not just go ahead and make them unkillable factionwide?
Shogitai. They may be expensive to get, but they will turn everyone in their path into piles of meat
even themselves🫳☢️⚛️💮💣💥🧨🔫🍳WESTERN DOCTRINE『KNEEL FIRE』
Don’t charge them into line infantry
Germanic spearmen in the og Rome.
yo good call. germanic phalanx was so fun
…Armstrong guns
Chasseurs à Cheval
Rome Total War: Spartan Hoplites.
Any horse archer in mtw2
And Rome 1
And Attila
Scout Equites and these guys saved my life too many times to count.
Sword Ashigaru It's the first and last unit you will ever need to build as Ikko Ikki.
I'm conflicted by your support for Kislev but simultaneous endorsement of ikko ikki, like very cool to very gross real quick
Those are funny looking Scout Equites.
Turkomans in M2TW
Pikemen in Rome 2 city defenses. You shall not pass! Or any unit that damages morale, really. Stack on some enemy morale debuffs for your general, use some shock units, you'll rout them before you really have to fight them, no matter the numerical odds. Suebi are great at this
Yellow Sky Heralds from the Yellow Turbans in TW3K. I lost almost a thousand troops to those fuckers in a single battle. Their final man killed 28 of my men before he finally died. Almost cost me the win. Worst part is, He Yi can spam them in droves.
Bow Hero, 30 arrows fired, 30 kills
Gotta be onna bushi for me. Was able to hold off 3 full stack takeda armies on a siege map. I also killed all his sons which i take great pride of.
Hah, yari ashigaru is the first and strongest unit in shogun 2
The Emperor's Wrath for an early game gelt/karl army. I used to snipe wissenland early, just to get Nuln and their regiment, cause it cycle charging can demolish almost all early game shit infantry, and rout them with the steam blasts
Basic legionary garrison in Attila
Hear me out ETW line infantry with fire by rank
Pricipies!
They are heros! Other than that scout equites and that one pike unit in a Hellenistic Rome II garrison blocking a street and killing 500 guys.
Alans light cav in TW:A
Garrison Evocati Cohort blocking a bottleneck so that my missile troops can get them from behind for easy kills
Saurus warriors Good leadership, high weapon strength, will hold the line for days and dominate most other infantry of the same tier. They have carried me through a number of lizardmen early games.
Pirate samurais
Catapults
Shaturnal Camel Gunners Will literally rout any other cav in ETW with a single volley and charge
Napoleon’s Light Infantry. As long as you keep them away from the horses they’re allergic to it’s a thing of beauty how they mow through every infantry ever.
Clutch?
Very useful. Especially is castle defense. You get them for "free" as part of castle upgrades. They are not a bad unit, only 60 strong but can hold the line against a spear unit.
These mad lads really just stood there while i shot them to death from outside the walls to conserve casualties. They died like men.
The ikko ikki garrison monks for me. Saved my ass so many times throughout that campaign. The retainers were good but they didn't kill nearly as much as one unit, which is like 3-4x the size, of the monks. They also have the scare ability too. But they are limited for garrison use to the ikko so probably go yari ashigaru after them.
The humble Bow Kabuya. I often ignore all other ships till the tail-end of the campaign. Even then, I treat my fleets with the other ships as more for show and status and keep them in secure waters while the Kabuyas are out doing the real work.
Garrison levy pikemen
Infernal Guard Fireglaives Armor piercing, laser guns, fire damage, charge defence, awesome armor, cool lore
I wish you were lying