Portuguese tercos: Better armour, accuracy or melee?

[Jason1504]

Being playing around with the Otomo clan and reaping the rewards gained by my Portuguese Tercos who, at the moment, have additional accuracy due to being recruited in Buzen. I'm now wonder if its worth trying to demolishing my Nanban Quarter and rebuilding it in Satsuma where i could get either better armour or melee attack (or a mix of both with an encampment).

Just curious to ask what others would specialise their Tercos in when recruiting them?

PS. I'm aware of the trick to build a Nanban Quarter, let the province rebel and recapture it, meaning you can have 2 Nanban Quarters but I wasn't aware of this trick until after I converted Satsuma.

[markeason]

For me, the strength of the Tercos is their ranged fire, I don't want them in melee, but know they will do alright if they are.

I would therefore always recruit them in a province with an Artisan chain building for the massive +20% accuracy boost.

Armour or melee boost can be obtained in that province with the relevant encampment chain improvement if you felt they needed that (Armoury or Jujitsu dojo IIRC), They have 8 armour already so will not suffer unduly from incoming arrows.

If I want melee units, I would go katana / no-dachi / naginata as appropriate and recruit them from Blcaksmith province.

Other opinions will vary.

[Sn3z]

You don't actually need any stat upgrades when it comes to terco's don't even bother relocating,

Ranks see that everything improves after a few battles anyway these units will only get better and better.

The only stat that actually matters when it comes to matchlock is reload speed.

[markeason]

Originally posted by Sn3z:

You don't actually need any stat upgrades when it comes to terco's don't even bother relocating,

Ranks see that everything improves after a few battles anyway these units will only get better and better.

The only stat that actually matters when it comes to matchlock is reload speed.

Whilst melee improves with experience, armour does not.

Whilst I agree that there is no case to be made for relocating as their armour is fine at 8, or can be improved with an encampment armoury in the artisan province if your Tercos are regularly getting shot up by enemy archers.

It may be that, for reasons I don't understand, the OP is using his Tercos as melee units, which is why he is considering the relocation and improvement to melee / armour. If this is the case, reload stat has no relevance to the way he has chosen to use them !?!?!

[Sn3z]

Originally posted by markeason:

Originally posted by Sn3z:

You don't actually need any stat upgrades when it comes to terco's don't even bother relocating,

Ranks see that everything improves after a few battles anyway these units will only get better and better.

The only stat that actually matters when it comes to matchlock is reload speed.

Whilst melee improves with experience, armour does not.

Whilst I agree that there is no case to be made for relocating as their armour is fine at 8, or can be improved with an encampment armoury in the artisan province if your Tercos are regularly getting shot up by enemy archers.

It may be that, for reasons I don't understand, the OP is using his Tercos as melee units, which is why he is considering the relocation and improvement to melee / armour. If this is the case, reload stat has no relevance to the way he has chosen to use them !?!?!

You would have to be smoking something really good to want to use these as dedicated melee.

[markeason]

Originally posted by Sn3z:

Originally posted by markeason:

Whilst melee improves with experience, armour does not.

Whilst I agree that there is no case to be made for relocating as their armour is fine at 8, or can be improved with an encampment armoury in the artisan province if your Tercos are regularly getting shot up by enemy archers.

It may be that, for reasons I don't understand, the OP is using his Tercos as melee units, which is why he is considering the relocation and improvement to melee / armour. If this is the case, reload stat has no relevance to the way he has chosen to use them !?!?!

You would have to be smoking something really good to want to use these as dedicated melee.

On that, I can definitely agree :)

[Edit]: But can think of no other reason for the OP considering upgrading them with Armour or melee.

[Sn3z]

Originally posted by markeason:

Originally posted by Sn3z:

You would have to be smoking something really good to want to use these as dedicated melee.

On that, I can definitely agree :)

[Edit]: But can think of no other reason for the OP considering upgrading them with Armour or melee.

Better in castle defense on walls but their base armor and melee attack is really good anyway, the real stat upgrade they need is melee defense, which we have no encampment.

[Telvido_cat]

I've used Terco spam on legendary and they've done great with full armour buff. They're a bit ropey until vetted but the armour helps negate charge and they can stand in arrow fire all day. Mix in some yari sam for fast anti-cav and some donderbuss because it's Otomo.

[Jason1504]

Originally posted by markeason:

Originally posted by Sn3z:

You would have to be smoking something really good to want to use these as dedicated melee.

On that, I can definitely agree :)

[Edit]: But can think of no other reason for the OP considering upgrading them with Armour or melee.

Oh don't worry, i'm not using them as devoted melee units. I would agree that you would have to be snorting some pretty powerful glue to use them for that role :)

I'm more just curious to see what others do when recruiting Tercos, some people swear by going down the armour route while others (like me) go accuracy.

I've also heard of some going full melee as this will help with katana/yari sam, after firing a few volleys you charge them in and almost indefinitely come out on top.

[Sn3z]

Originally posted by Jason1504:

Originally posted by markeason:

On that, I can definitely agree :)

[Edit]: But can think of no other reason for the OP considering upgrading them with Armour or melee.

Oh don't worry, i'm not using them as devoted melee units. I would agree that you would have to be snorting some pretty powerful glue to use them for that role :)

I'm more just curious to see what others do when recruiting Tercos, some people swear by going down the armour route while others (like me) go accuracy.

I've also heard of some going full melee as this will help with katana/yari sam, after firing a few volleys you charge them in and almost indefinitely come out on top.

If this discussion was about say matchlock samurai , I would think there would be more room for debate, terco are basically I win, you could do nothing recruit them at stock and let them naturally rank. A TERCO AT RANK 9 with popped reload(just before first salvo) in knee fire will rout/wipe out any infantry unit that's trying to charge it, no doubt bad damage to cavalry. They already have a respectable 8 armor, most likely the armor is the better upgrade if I had to choose, as it better for field battle's and the accuracy via ranks goes to 86 anyway. I do wonder what an additional +2 armor if you encamp or relocate for then +4, would it be really that impactful to warrant a move I don't think so ... Amour upgrade is also more important for defensive based army compostions and matchlock are best used in such army's.

[markeason]

If I wanted extra armour for them, I would trade the +2 armour from the encampment armoury for the +5 accuracy from the encampment hunting lodge (if that makes sense). No way would I give up the +20 accuracy from the Master bowmaker for +3 armour by moving from artisan to blacksmith province.

[BastardSword]

I usually go for accuracy but I don't think it's really a big deal. Increasing accuracy for bows is very noticeable, but I've never really noticed that high accuracy matchlocks really do more damage. When defending a castle matchlocks will shine no matter what, but in an open field battle they can only get one or two shots off before getting swarmed and having to run away anyway. What I like about tercos is that they don't have to run away, they can stand up to melee units and usually win. These enemy melee units will have just taken a terco load of shot to the face and will be weaker for it.

[Sn3z]

Originally posted by BastardSword:

I usually go for accuracy but I don't think it's really a big deal. Increasing accuracy for bows is very noticeable, but I've never really noticed that high accuracy matchlocks really do more damage. When defending a castle matchlocks will shine no matter what, but in an open field battle they can only get one or two shots off before getting swarmed and having to run away anyway. What I like about tercos is that they don't have to run away, they can stand up to melee units and usually win. These enemy melee units will have just taken a terco load of shot to the face and will be weaker for it.

Thats why the reload stat is the most important stat, and that can only be increased via ranking, also terco and matchlock samurai have a increased reload ability +15, which I think is best popped just before the first salvo, handy no doubt but why matchlock ashigaru basically suck and should really never be brought into field battles, you would seek out matchlock samurai or terco, accuracy is far better upgrade on matchlock ashigaru their reload speeds will never compete.

[Sn3z]

Originally posted by markeason:

If I wanted extra armour for them, I would trade the +2 armour from the encampment armoury for the +5 accuracy from the encampment hunting lodge (if that makes sense). No way would I give up the +20 accuracy from the Master bowmaker for +3 armour by moving from artisan to blacksmith province.

The hunting lodge is godawful, two ranks and they have like +4 or so, such a waste of gold, your just far batter with other encampments.

[Tocki]

Trust me! Go melee! Weaponsmith with that encampment with melee buff!
Why? Put them on the wall, stretch them out and defensive mode! They just kill everything! with range or melee!
Gen with stand and fight upgrade and armies three times of yours will still not stand a chance

[BastardSword]

Something I saw a while ago (might have been Smartdonkey) was the notion that tercos are basically katana samurai with guns.