Dont put ashigaru on the walls, put them right behind them instead.

[The Blind One]

I learned a valuable siege lesson today which probably all of you already know but ...

Instead of putting Yari Ashigaru directly on the walls, instead allow the enemy troops to climb the walls freely ... till they get over the edge at which point if you position your yari ashigaru properly in spear wall, the moment they get up they should be greated with spears. Almost all troops die directly from the spear wall because each troop that climbs over the wall will be greated with roughly 4 to 6 spears simultaneously.

This made the walls literally impenetrable for me unless the AI brings enough archer support to wipe away my yari walls.

This turned a 3250 ashigaru enemy strong army vs my 2000 ashigaru battle into a small 500 troop loss for me but the entire army wiped for the enemy. That's 6 to 1 odds. The best results I could get otherwise before this trick was a 1000 troop loss for me.

I had to face 2 full stacks of uesugi troops attacking my city. That's 6500 (3250 x 2) troops in total. I could beat their first wave but not the second until I found this trick/exploit.

Ashigaru are significantly better in spear wall formation but they don't have that ability if you put them directly on the walls for defence but they do if you put them just slightly behind the walls and wait for the enemy to climb the walls ...

Anybody else know of such game changing tricks? Let me know, this totally changed the way I'm setting up my troops on the walls now. And what are the odds you guys are getting for sieges? 3 to 1 seems pretty reasonable as long as you are able to field the same amount of troops and can prevent from being surrounded or have your lines broken. But 6 to 1? That's the kind of stuff I was hoping for :D serious punishment for the AI!

[THEDOSSBOSS]

Well yeah always try to get your ashigaru in yari wall in any and all situations

Also bunch up and hide them behind the gates so that on approach enemy archers cannot fire upon them. I have won plenty of 2 on 5 battles (level 2 castle which just has the retainers and yari ashigaru as garrisons) (enemy has a general unit, 2 archers, and 2 ashigaru) by hiding behind the gates. If the enemy archers don't have anything to shoot at, the archers will climb the walls just after the yari ashigaru do. In which case you place your retainers in single ranks on the walls so they are spread out more, and place the yari ashigaru just behind in a guard-moded yari wall (always keep all units in guard mode. Make an effort to enable the mode at the beginning of every battle).

This strategy is all about timing. Too soon and you won't give the enemy archers enough time to start climbing the wall, in which case they will shoot your ashigaru to pieces. Too late and the enemy yari ashigaru reach the top before your retainers are in place, removing their defensive bonus. Another thing you can do is run you ashigaru back a little bit more and wait for all the enemy to engage it, then use the great charge bonus of the retainers to charge the enemy in the back and hopefully mass route them. Did that once with 8 remaining retainers and it won me the battle.

So yeah, just a strategy to use with a lvl 2 castle against small enemy armies. At the least you'll inflict massive damge. At the best you will win the battle and kill the general in the process

[THEDOSSBOSS]

Also just the general clicking 'continue battle' after you've wkn if you have cav, and chase down as many enemy units as you can. This makes light cav extremely useful as well as the fact that they are the best archer killers before yari cav are available. Never use katana cav. Never buy katana cav, even if you are the takeda

[THEDOSSBOSS]

And another thing in sieges. Enemy's will go to attack anything close to them that steps outside the walls, which can provide a great oppurtunity.

One defensive siege battle, I had an ashigaru half stack against a full stack samurai build on very hard. There was no way to win such a battle by just using yari wall as regular yari ashigaru can only kill a unit and a half of yari samurai at best in a siege defense yari wall (where my units are unbreakable), or most a katana samurai unit. It was a coastal map, lvl 2 castle, 3 sided siege battle with the little bridge on the coastal side. If you are familiar with the generic siege maps you'd know it just like you'd know what I mean by the 'cross fort' siege map or the 'H fort' siege map.
So to the strat, I tried the battle twice and lost miserably because I did the standard 'defend and hold the walls with yari wall'. I did not have enough yari ashigaru to cover all the walls effectively while also dealing with enemy archer and such.
So, the third time, I tried something I had never done before. I had 2 units of matchlock ashigaru and 2 units of light cav. Matchlocks did plenty of damage but did not have enough time to tip the scale, so I took 1 light cav outside the southern wall (opposite the coast) and used them to get the attention of the 3 katana samurai coming from that direction (the main force was coming from the west wall with two groups of 3 units coming from the east) and I placed my matchlocks on the southern wall. I then went to kite the enemy units around within the range of the matchlocks, that would fire from above. I'd say the AI was dumb but if it ignored the cav and tried to climb the wall it would leave itself open to a rear charge, which could be devastating from any kind of cav, so it continued to chase the cav while I kited, as well as pay attention to the rest of the battle, without pausing the game once (that's what 800 hours gets you). The cav even drew the attention from 2 more samurai units from the east side, so now I had 5 samurai units after 1 unit of light cav, all the while being shot up by my guns. It was glorious warching dozens of samurai drop with each volley. Eventually, when the general phase came (enemy general and calvary units come up to the walls, dismount, and climb), 2 general units from the west side came after my cav, and preceeded to be punished by my range.
It was a glorious battle, and required a mastery in micro-management and timing, as I had other important points in the battle to focus on, like retreating my bows when the east and west came to the walls as well as doing the necessary flankings with my retainers and turn 1 yari samurai unit, along with constantly shifting the yari ashigaru's position to take on a new wave of enemies on a different part of the wall.

All and all my pointers are to go for unorthodox strategies when your army is outnumbered and outclassed, as well as improving your micro management abilities, and you will win almost any battle

[The Blind One]

Originally posted by THEDOSSBOSS:

And another thing in sieges. Enemy's will go to attack anything close to them that steps outside the walls, which can provide a great oppurtunity.

EPIC STORY CONTINUES

haha epic bro, that really reminds me of that one time I beat the Hungary AI besieging sofia in M2, I only had 1 byzantine cavalry left without arrows and one infantry unit (with like 5 guys in it) which I stationed at the gates and the AI had something like 2 generals and 5 infantry units left. I just kept kiting infront of the main gate and praying the arrows would kill off their last remaining troops. I think I survived in the end with like 5 cavalrymen left :'D It was especially hilarious to see their generals constantly miss me by a hair only to get shot in the back by the gate defenses.

Thanks for the tips bro. I'll have to tro and see about the gate trick. I usually place my general behind the Temple building so that any arrow fire will hit the temple before it hits my general but I should try the gate trick as well it seems. I did try placing ALL my troops waaay in the back of a castle so that the enemy archers can't reach them and they'll often start climbing the walls just to start attacking anyway then, as soon as I see them initiate the climb animation I rush my forces back over and await them at the walls :P