Best frontline unit in campaign

[Shin Geovanny]

What is your prefered unit for that role?

[ShoGunOni]

yari wall

[Sn3z]

Due to the mirror nature of the game you must pick yari ashigaru. It can't be debated. You can run a missile comp to prtoect these units or use a rush army in which case yari ashigaru turn into expendable units.

[RedPhoenix]

British marine

[Nelson]

Originally posted by Sn3z:

...you must pick yari ashigaru. It can't be debated.

This. 3 for ashigaru.
Along with yumi ashigaru. The only samurai you need are all mounted. Light horse will do along with the taisho's retinue. Anything more is just for fun and variety. Kisho are great for slipping into fortresses.

"A samurai without a horse is no samurai at all"

[markeason]

Long yari ashigaru.

Keeps the yari ashigaru at spears length :p

[Björn]

depends if you wanna attack or defend a position...

[markeason]

Originally posted by Björn:

depends if you wanna attack or defend a position...

This is true.

A bow ashigaru is the most cost effective unit for taking a fort defended by a samurai retainer.

[Björn]

yari ashigaru aren´t that good. Without experience they are pretty easy to break. Just use a monk and wait till warcry is available. As attacker you have time so use it wisely. Also if i remember right warcry effects melee defence too and stacks...
1 hole in the defence with the monks and it is over.

[德川家康]

Niginata Monks. In a Skirmish stance. In battle, Yari Ash Or Karana Sam With Bow Sam.

[markeason]

By the time you get a warrior monk, the ashigaru will have been recruited from a holy site province, be level 4 or 5, led by a 3 or 4* general, probably with stand and fight.

They will have near unbreakable morale and the warrior monk is only going to scare himself with his pathetic shouting :)

[Sn3z]

Morale has a sole modifier is really only helpful in rush base comps. Yari ashigaru on their own rank up pretty nicely and those stats get much better, however morale is quite handy if you need to close down ground combined with armor it allows the losses to be more tolerable, and you will have a bigger pool of morale to exhaust closing down then you otherwise would if you didn't, which means basically more staying power = more time to rout from the back, morale is basically all about time which is something you don't have in rush armies and that's why its important.

when playing statically pushing a missile strength, yari ashigaru benefit more from armor + melee attack upgrade, ranks will cover the morale, key difference is your reactive and have time on your side and you have yari wall tempo.

In shogun 2, morale upgrades on the hole are just meh, thats because yari wall and not letting units past, in rots morale is actually crucial, extremely important to get and armor.

[markeason]

Morale (for low morale units) is paramount in the early game. Especially when defending wide against a superior force, whereby your flank units will not be within the general's bonus radius.

Ashigaru units out on the flanks rout in no time with base morale because they are inevitably outflanked by a superior force.

Even in the centre, defending say a river crossing, tanking arrows while in yari wall and being assailed by an army four times stronger, they need all the morale buffs they can get. Routing at 80% losses compared to 50% is the difference between victory and defeat.

Playing with the effects of fatigue applied to infantry (reducing movement, melee attack, charge and missile accuracy) that are applied to every other unit in the game, means that morale plays an even more significant role.

[Sn3z]

Originally posted by markeason:

Morale (for low morale units) is paramount in the early game. Especially when defending wide against a superior force, whereby your flank units will not be within the general's bonus radius.

Ashigaru units out on the flanks rout in no time with base morale because they are inevitably outflanked by a superior force.

Even in the centre, defending say a river crossing, tanking arrows while in yari wall and being assailed by an army four times stronger, they need all the morale buffs they can get. Routing at 80% losses compared to 50% is the difference between victory and defeat.

Playing with the effects of fatigue applied to infantry (reducing movement, melee attack, charge and missile accuracy) that are applied to every other unit in the game, means that morale plays an even more significant role.

Its just killing power (ranged) thats way more important in your scenario not even armor , as that determines your loss bleed overall and how fast at the end of the day, you need better trading, whats morale doing if your taking horrendous losses from missiles in yari wall and your actually committed to standing around. With those type of odds which I never seen and must be really late game - realm divide in which case I would ask where's your other stacks.., you need like fire rocket units to deal with those types of odds, efficiently and quickly, if you insist on taking battle like that..

You should Bookend end your line with samurai units to stop morale shock, happening in the first place, its one the best universal things in a battle any player can do and should, cover their yari wall.

[BastardSword]

The main strength of yari ashigaru is just how damn cheap their purchase price and upkeep are. You can easily get a full stack army of yari ashigaru and bow ashigaru and a few samurai early on in the game, and it will do the job just fine as long as you know what you're doing. Trying to mirror match the AI by spamming yari samurai will bankrupt you in the early game, or restrict you to one army when you really need two. It's always better to have two armies of garbage units than to have one army of max quality units.

As for the blanket morale upgrade you can get from a pilgrim hostel or whatever, it's easily the worst upgrade you can give to units. Mori and Hattori can easily get some of these units very very early on in the game, and they don't really perform any better than units without them. They will last like maybe 10 seconds longer before a rout. What is always most important is your general's command level, if your general is level 1 or 2 then any units have a risk of routing, even samurai. At level 3 or 4 your units start getting a lot better about not routing as long as they aren't left alone at the flanks.

[lecljz]

Best frontline unit has to be Matchlock Ashigaru for sure